Apple's App Store Downloads Top Two Billion
More Than 85,000 Apps Now Available for iPhone & iPod touch — Apple® today announced that more than two billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store, the largest applications store in the world.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple had reported 1.5 billion App Store downloads in its first year in July 2009. Reaching the new milestone alongside an 85,000-app catalog shows that usage and supply are expanding together rather than as a one-off launch surge.
An earlier look at the store's all-time leaders had already made app rankings a visible part of the platform. A much larger catalog raises the value of Apple's storefront as the place where iPhone and iPod touch users find software.
First-order effects
- iPhone and iPod touch owners gain access to a catalog of more than 85,000 apps, reinforcing the devices' value beyond their built-in features.
- Apple gives developers a distribution channel with a demonstrated large installed audience, while the expanding catalog makes discovery and ranking more consequential.
Second-order effects
- Apple's control of the App Store becomes more strategically important: its merchandising and rankings increasingly determine which developers can reach iPhone and iPod touch users.
- App availability becomes a larger component of Apple's device proposition, tying hardware demand more closely to the breadth and visibility of software in its store.
Third-order effects
- If download growth continues alongside catalog growth, mobile software distribution shifts toward centrally managed storefronts where platform owners set the terms of access and discovery.
The trend: The App Store is becoming a two-sided mobile platform in which a growing user base attracts software supply and a growing catalog strengthens the underlying devices.