As part of Apple’s announcement that the Mac App Store reached 100 million downloads in less than a year, a small portion was dedicated to some interesting iOS statistics. The company announced that the iOS App Store has passed 18 billion downloads, a number that manages to make the Mac App Store look deserted.
Additionally, users are downloading these mobile apps at a rate of over one billion per month. If that rate continues as expected, one lucky iDevice owner should download the 20 billionth app some time in early February 2012.
Apple also mentioned that the iOS App Store houses over 500,000 apps, but that’s been known. Let’s instead shift our focus on the future: one million apps. The race is on between Android and iOS to get there first. iOS is still maintaining its lead over Android, which boasts 370,000 apps.
Plus, Apple’s OS is now getting a generous amount of help from the iPad. A quick glance into the iPad App Store reveals there are 155,173 apps compatible with iPad as I type this post. Regardless of which OS gets to one million apps first, you can bet the accomplishment will be marketed like hell.
As I’ve previously pointed out, both app stores have such an abundance of apps that the number is starting to not even matter anymore.