I hope I’ve got a spare around here somewhere, because my mind is blown. Apple announced on Tuesday that the App Store has now topped three billion downloads. That’s three billion in less than 18 months of existence, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs was kind enough to point out in the company’s press release.
If you recall, the store hit the two billion mark back in September, having topped the one billion mark in April of last year. It took nine months for Apple to hit its first billion, five months to hit its second billion, and slightly more than three months after that to reach three billion.
That’s some impressive acceleration there, but two words will shed some light on the matter: holiday season. Having introduced no less than four relatives to the wonder of downloading apps during my vacation, there’s no question in my mind that Apple sold an imperial ton of iPhones in its most recent quarter. Of course, we’ll have to wait until Apple releases its quarterly results towards the end of the month to get the actual numbers on that.
Until then, there’s only one number that really matters and it’s this: three billion downloads.