Apple hits 25 Billion App Download Milestone

Apple has celebrated a huge milestone. Over 25 billion iOS apps have been downloaded for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad since the App Store first went live in 2008. This signifies a robust, thriving and profitable app economy for Apple and its developers.

Apple has paid developers a total of $4 billion to date. For users, it represents a rich variety of paid and free applications to make their device usage more engaging and also increase their loyalty to Apple's products.

“We’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “When we launched the App Store less than four years ago, we never imagined that mobile apps would become the phenomenon they have, or that developers would create such an incredible selection of apps for iOS users.”

The App Store offers more than 550,000 apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in 123 countries around the world, with more than 170,000 native iPad apps available.

App Store customers can choose from an incredible range of apps in 21 categories, including Newsstand, games, business, news, sports, health & fitness and travel.