App Store hits a billion downloads

iPhone

Apple's App Store has delivered a billion downloads in nine months, the tech firm said today.

Apple was naturally quite pleased with the milestone. Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, said in a statement: "In nine months, the App Store has completely revolutionised the mobile industry and this is only the beginning."

Indeed, the success will further encourage Apple's followers in the web-based application store model such as RIM, which recently created App World for BlackBerry.

Nokia announced its version earlier this year, Google's Android has its Market, Palm is planning one for Pre, and even Microsoft has one in the works.

It's not just for mobile phones, as NetSuite has created its own application store.

Apple noted that its App Store has 35,000 applications for its iPhone and iPod devices.

The system isn't without some controversy. The online store offers some quite useful tools including those to use Twitter but was recently hit with a bit of bad press after allowing a game called Baby Bashers to make it through its approval process.