Apple shocked quite a many on Tuesday by announcing that over three billion Apple Apps have been downloaded by the iPhone and iPod users across the globe since the company opened its App store in July 2008. What’s eye catching is that in April last year, within a period of one year alone, the company had announced to have sold one billion Apps.
Apple’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said in a statement on Tuesday, “Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months – this is like nothing we have ever seen before… The revolutionary App store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”
The App store has certainly proved itself to be a steady revenue earner for the company over the 18 months since its launch. Apples profitability from the store can be well imagined from the fact that as per one of the merchants of the App store, they generate $1 million per month from sale of their products at the App store. And that is just 70 percent of the original sales proceedings because Apple charges 30 percent of the sale proceeding for selling the products through its store.
At present Apple sells apps under 20 different categories including games, news, business, sports, health, travels et al. It had 35,000 Apps available in the store in April last year.
Despite such success, the App stores have received heavy criticism from the developers’ community. According to them the selection process for selling Apps through Apple is quite unwieldy and arbitrary. In past also the company has been criticized for releasing applications which are considered offensive.
As various reports indicate, at present Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch is available in 77 countries across the globe.