Just a week after announcing there were now over 100,000 apps for the iPad, Apple has revealed that 15 billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store by the more than 200 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users worldwide in the three years since the store was founded.
The new download data illustrates both the growing penetration of smartphones and tablets as well as burgeoning consumer demand for apps. The new numbers also represent a huge jump in downloads since the beginning of this year when Apple announced it had passed the 3 billion download mark or September of 2010, when the App Store passed the 2 billion download mark.
Apple has also paid app developers over $2.5 billion to date, the company announced.
"In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing noted in a statement. "Thank you to all of our amazing developers who have filled it with over 425,000 of the coolest apps and to our over 200 million iOS users for surpassing 15 billion downloads."
