Apple Announces 40 Billion App Store Downloads, Nearly 20 Billion in 2012

[macs4nw]

Holy crap! That's almost 100% growth Y-O-Y. Phenomenal.
The headline kinda reminds me of those signs McDonalds used to have: "Billions and Billions served".

[wrkactjob]

40 Billion you say?!

[D.T.]

10 billion of those downloads were Angry Bird games ...

[ifij775]

LOL Apple drops this at the start of CES...

[rmwebs]

Originally Posted by Compile 'em all

Good time to be an iOS developer I guess?

Depends on your market. If you develop games then you don't have a hope in hell. If you do small niche markets you have a lot more success.

It really depends what it is you specialize in though.

[ericinboston]

Originally Posted by FSMBP

I don't get why they brag so much about 775,000 apps. It's getting harder and harder to find decent ones.

I have to agree...not to mention that folks like my family who have a number of iOS devices CANNOT use some/many of the apps we've purchased because Apple demands the iOS on the devices to be upgraded AS WELL AS iTunes upgraded all the time. Do you upgrade your computer OS every 9 months? Me neither. What about your PS3 or Xbox? What about your cablebox? Well, we choose not to muck around with our ENTIRE DEVICE just to get a 99 cent app to work.

Back to your point...I probably have found (but not bought) at most 30 apps that have any real value...regardless if they are .99 or 2.99.

I'd also like to know how "download" is calculated. For example, if I buy an app and download it 5 times for my 5 devices, is that 1 download or 5? I only bought it once. What about an app that has an in-store-purchase? Do in-store-purchases count as a "download" for the mother app? Or what about folks who download the "free" app and then press the button to buy the "full version"?

[Oletros]

Impressive numbers

[ArchAndroid]

These are amazing numbers but I would prefer that the 775,500 number be a little lower and Apple got rid of apps that haven't been updated or modified in ages.

[chrisbru]

Originally Posted by ericinboston

I have to agree...not to mention that folks like my family who have a number of iOS devices CANNOT use some/many of the apps we've purchased because Apple demands the iOS on the devices to be upgraded AS WELL AS iTunes upgraded all the time. Do you upgrade your computer OS every 9 months? Me neither. What about your PS3 or Xbox? What about your cablebox? Well, we choose not to muck around with our ENTIRE DEVICE just to get a 99 cent app to work.

Back to your point...I probably have found (but not bought) at most 30 apps that have any real value...regardless if they are .99 or 2.99.

I'd also like to know how "download" is calculated. For example, if I buy an app and download it 5 times for my 5 devices, is that 1 download or 5? I only bought it once. What about an app that has an in-store-purchase? Do in-store-purchases count as a "download" for the mother app? Or what about folks who download the "free" app and then press the button to buy the "full version"?

I don't understand what you are saying. Why are you against updating iTunes? That's not at all akin to updating your computer OS (though I do update once a year currently) or your cable box/gaming console.

As for the buy once, download on all 5 devices... As long as its under one account, that would be counted as a re-download and excluded from the 40 billion number as per the asterisk on the statement pointed out earlier. The free-to-paid would probably count as 2 downloads, but I'm not positive.

[etrinh]

Originally Posted by ericinboston

I have to agree...not to mention that folks like my family who have a number of iOS devices CANNOT use some/many of the apps we've purchased because Apple demands the iOS on the devices to be upgraded AS WELL AS iTunes upgraded all the time. Do you upgrade your computer OS every 9 months? Me neither. What about your PS3 or Xbox? What about your cablebox? Well, we choose not to muck around with our ENTIRE DEVICE just to get a 99 cent app to work.

Back to your point...I probably have found (but not bought) at most 30 apps that have any real value...regardless if they are .99 or 2.99.

I'd also like to know how "download" is calculated. For example, if I buy an app and download it 5 times for my 5 devices, is that 1 download or 5? I only bought it once. What about an app that has an in-store-purchase? Do in-store-purchases count as a "download" for the mother app? Or what about folks who download the "free" app and then press the button to buy the "full version"?

The original sorce article states that's re-downloads are excluded from the tally

[JHankwitz]

Originally Posted by FSMBP

I don't get why they brag so much about 775,000 apps. It's getting harder and harder to find decent ones.

It seems there's an opportunity here for you to start creating some decent apps. Go for it!

[LagunaSol]

Originally Posted by ericinboston

What about your PS3 or Xbox?

Um, yes actually - my PS3 gets frequent (and required) system updates.

Originally Posted by ericinboston

Back to your point...I probably have found (but not bought) at most 30 apps that have any real value...regardless if they are .99 or 2.99.

Wow. Just wow. You must have extremely....exotic needs.

[JHankwitz]

Originally Posted by ArchAndroid

These are amazing numbers but I would prefer that the 775,500 number be a little lower and Apple got rid of apps that haven't been updated or modified in ages.

How would you like to be the developer of the apps Apple gets rid of? Just because a near perfect app doesn't get updated or modified doesn't mean it should be trashed.

[Laird Knox]

Originally Posted by Sy7ygy

Why??

@ Apple; don't care.. bring back Apple polish, not download ratings please..

[FSMBP]

Originally Posted by JHankwitz

It seems there's an opportunity here for you to start creating some decent apps. Go for it!

Not really. It would just get lost in the shuffle of the other million apps (which was my original point).

[HenryDJP]

Originally Posted by Compile 'em all

Good time to be an iOS developer I guess?

Uh not really, unless you're a major company or have some inside connections with Apple to get your app on the top 25 list your app will undoubtedly get lost amongst the hundreds of thousands of apps.

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by FSMBP

I don't get why they brag so much about 775,000 apps. It's getting harder and harder to find decent ones.

I think they brag about it because 'we are providing jobs to anyone who wants via them becoming iOS developers' has been in their defense list for a while.

But you are correct about discovery in the App Store. Really all the stores. Something needs to be done and right off if they are serious about these venues. They could be missing out on tons of sales because of poor keywords, no 'authority control' with meta data etc.

[GoldenJoe]

Originally Posted by Compile 'em all

Good time to be an iOS developer I guess?

It really is.

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by barkomatic

That can be subjective. Even fart apps could be useful to a 10 year old.

While you are correct that 'decent' and 'useful' are subjective. There still needs to be better data for finding them, whatever they are

[Rogifan]

Does Jony Ive get control of the UI for the stores? Because they really could use some work. Especially on the iPhone. Browsing for good apps is a PITA on the iPhone.

[Mike MA]

Those are quite amazing numbers.

What about the Mac App Store? These figures would be of interest too, especially the adoption of none Apple programs.

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by ericinboston

I have to agree...not to mention that folks like my family who have a number of iOS devices CANNOT use some/many of the apps we've purchased because Apple demands

The above needs a slight correction. Apple isn't who coded the apps so they don't work in devices you still have on iOS whatever that isn't current. Is the app developers.

Also, they are free software upgrades so why not do them. Okay sure there was the whole 'apple maps is garbage' excuse for going to iOS 6 but google maps is out now so that's done. Most folks have zero reason not to upgrade for the bug fixes, security fixes etc and are just too lazy to do it. A handful might be rocking old ass computers that can't go to the latest iTunes but that's a really old computer and should be replaced if only because the hard drive is likely to kick it at any moment.

Well, we choose not to muck around with our ENTIRE DEVICE just to get a 99 cent app to work.

Installing a company provided software update is hardly 'mucking' so it appears you are one of the lazy ones. Your choice but don't blame Apple for such cases. Or for the fact that you are still rocking the same 10.4.1 that your computer came with ages ago because if you upgrade your AppleWorks wont work anymore or that you can't use photo stream cause iPhoto 11 won't work unless you upgrade

[GenesisST]

Originally Posted by Kaibelf

Do you have a source or are you just speculating? I mean, it's not like hundreds of millions of people are changing devices weekly.

I was just wondering... not stating anything... I felt that such a large number would include re-downloads, since that happens often (installs on multiple device from same account, phone upgrade, etc).

But somebody pointed out that the actual statement from Apple does mention that it DOES NOT include re-downloads.

Since I'm at work, I didn't bother to read a long dull press release, sorry

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by chrisbru

The free-to-paid would probably count as 2 downloads, but I'm not positive.

If it was two apps yes. If it was one with an IAP (as I wish Apple would force it to be) then no

----------

Originally Posted by JHankwitz

How would you like to be the developer of the apps Apple gets rid of? Just because a near perfect app doesn't get updated or modified doesn't mean it should be trashed.

It's hard to back that line of thought when there are apps that are still from iOS 3 and have not been updated since. Those are the ones likely being talked about.

[TouchMint.com]

I feel like I have done my part.

People downloading my apps account for .0000375% of the 40bil.