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App Store Users Download 1.5 Billion Applications in One Year

2:39 pm on July 14, 2009 | Category: Business, Software, Web Services

Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users have downloaded a total of 1.5 billion applications since the ‘App Store’ was launched last July, giving Apple a firm lead in the mobile software distribution market.

“The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality,” said Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, in a statement earlier today. “With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up.”

But there’s no doubt that competition is brewing. Google, Nokia, Research In Motion and a number of wireless carriers have all introduced mobile software stores of their own in recent months, hoping to duplicate Apple’s success in the field.

Each of these companies is putting their own spin on the App Store concept, with Google, for example, stressing the open nature of its Android Market. Nokia, meanwhile, is putting a special emphasis on social networking applications — a good fit for social smartphones like the Nokia Surge.

For the foreseeable future, software marketplaces that target a particular niche will likely be the most successful, given Apple’s already massive lead in the general mobile application market. Surpassing the App Store in terms of sheer volume and selection will be a monumental task to say the least.

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