iTunes App Storeís phenomenal success: 1.5 billion downloads as of mid-July 2009
Steve Jobs himself was quite impressed.† He was quotesd as saying:
ìThe App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality. With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up.î
I hate Jobsí guts but I have to agree with him that the prospect of competitors catching up is the least of Appleís concern.† Either they are still working on their respective App platforms or they are still figuring out how to play in this new space.
Apple, of course, is not keen on making it easier for any of its competitors to play catch up.† With each new milestone reached the bar is automatically raised.
Consider these: The first 500 million downloads on the App Store took 6 months to come, while the next 500 million marching up to the billion was in just 3 months; The latest jump from 1 billion to 1.5 billion comes in less than 3 months.† There are approximately†50 apps being downloaded every second.
The release of iPhone 3GS last month further spurred momentum in apps development.† This will further steepen the already impossible to scale apps download curve.
