Apple on Thursday announced that more than 15 billion apps have been downloaded from the iOS App Store. According to Apple, more than 200 million iOS device users have installed those billions of apps from the store’s selection of 425,000 apps—including 100,000 native iPad apps.
“In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen,” said Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller in a written statement. Schiller added, “Thank you to all of our amazing developers who have filled” the App Store with what he termed “the coolest apps.”
The App Store first launched almost exactly three years ago. Early on, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told developers that they could get their apps on the iPhone by creating Web apps to run in Mobile Safari. Developers didn’t love that idea, though, and Apple’s unveiling of its iOS SDK has been met with thousands of satisfied developers—and App Store customers, too.
Apple takes a 30 percent cut on the sale price of App Store apps. The company says it has paid out more than $2.5 billion to developers to date.