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Apple says more than 40 bil apps have been downloaded

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There are 775,000 individual applications available in the app store.

Not true, only about 610k apps, another 150k games, for a total of 760k available programs for iOS 6. Add in the fact that some programs have both iPad and iPhone versions and the actual number if far less.

The 40 billion milestone does not include updates or re-downloads.

This is also not true, as app upgrades (not new versions through standard channel, but an entirely new program with same name), different device version apps for the same account, and new accounts for same device are counted.

Also interesting to note that a vast majority of apps have zero downloads. That's not "just a few" or "negligible", but actually zero downloads, meaning not even the developer cares a toot about the app (http://gigaom.com/2012/07/31/app-store-infested-with-zombie-software-claims-analytics-startup-adeven/). 99% of the downloads are of the 1% of programs, and hell, upto a quarter of a percent of all downloads ever ( and at least 0.5% of December downloads, probably 5% or more) belong to Google Maps alone!

Huge app stores is a simple case of time wasted space and borderline false advertizing.

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

There were 3 billion Firefox Addons (about as complex as apps) downloaded in 2012. Microsoft Office 2010 alone is 100million+, and there's tens of millions of game mods downloaded through steam each year, on top of the likely number in the hundreds of millions of downloaded games. If you were to add up all programs download each year you would likely be in the hundreds of billions, more so if you include Java applets and other things apps are meant to replace.

Nintendo has SOLD 4 billion games (while most of apple's are free downloads), and xbox 360 alone has SOLD 600 million. Even Angry Birds series alone generated a BILLION downloads. Considering more than half of the software sold at the app store is games, that puts things into perspective.

While 40 billion may seem like a lot, it's not as big of a deal as they make it out to be.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

With Apple and how locked down their infrastruture is, they should know and can list how many of those 40 billion apps got uninstalled 1 minute after install.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

Basroil - with all due respect, your numbers are just plain wrong, and 40 billion is as big a deal as it seems to be.

Korlacan - nothing but speculation. For all you know all 40 billion apps are still on their devices.

40 billion! Incredible!

4 ( +7 / -3 )

hoserfellaJan. 08, 2013 - 07:00PM JST

your numbers are just plain wrong

Prove it so, I have already given you a link to why, and the other numbers are from http://148apps.biz/app-store-metrics/ . Until then, I am 100% correct, for the parts I don't simplify because nobody would care for the long answer anyway.

40 billion is as big a deal as it seems to be.

Not at all. http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2153215 As you can see, the estimated number of apps downloaded just this year is 46 billion. On top of that, 90% of apps downloaded are free, so you can expect that the number of apps people actually paid for is just 4 billion (give or take a billion). That's hardly significant when Nintendo sells that much with games that cost 30-60 bucks each, even less when you realize the average sold price of an app is just under $3 bucks. Hell, at that price, even Windows 7, a full fledged OS, has better market value.

For all you know all 40 billion apps are still on their devices.

That comes out to 100 apps per device, assuming all devices are both able to still download (they aren't all) and still in use (nowhere near that considering how often people replace their phones). The actual numbers are about half of the downloads. You can verify that from http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/03/05/apples-app-store-users-install-80-apps-per-device-each-app-downloaded-45454-times-on-average/ and http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/05/16/nielsen-us-smartphones-have-an-average-of-41-apps-installed-up-from-32-last-year/ . As you can see, just two months after Apple stated that everyone downloads an average of 80 apps, Nielsen reported that iOS users average just 41 apps, which means half the downloads are more or less immediately removed. That also doesn't count the 25% of apps that are no longer on the store and may have even been force removed during OS updates.

There's a lot of common things in this world that sell trillions of units around the world, and yet there's no special recognition for those. 40 billion is hardly news, especially when most of the downloads give no money, and half of them are removed after downloads.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

basroil- 40 billion downloads for 1 OS is simply staggering. Apple have at this time got the pulse of not just a nation, but the entire planet. Astonishing!

1 ( +5 / -5 )

better question is, who cares? why take it so personally about the 40 billion number?

5 ( +4 / -0 )

It is only angered personal opinions backed by unreliable sites against an official release from Cupertino, who are you gonna believe? I myself downloaded four free apps this last month, upgraded two of them to the paid version. My brother-in-law didn't blink when paying $20 for a navigation app. Everybody I know that owns an iPhone downloads lots of apps. Some do not do what they promise, the vast majority does. One thing that's good about App Store is that you know that you can download apps and feel secure that they won't cause you problems.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

@hoserfella

Exactly what was I speculating? I simply said that Apple should know how many apps were installed and uninstalled a minute after installation. Gotta have that app data tracking to make that ad money.

Also it's 40 billion downloads throughout the life of iOS (all the versions) from any device that runs it (iPod, iPhone, iPad). It really isn't that impressive of a number.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I completely agree Apple app store figures are amazing, no other platform comes close to the almighty Apple I am so glad they invented software, and also the Internet so that we have the ability to download this software that they invented, look the sky is also green and the oceans are pink.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

better question is, who cares? why take it so personally about the 40 billion number?

Shareholders care, a lot. The 40 billion number shows how people frequent people are using iDevices, generating huge revenue - the 7 billion dollars mentioned in the article. The personal side...it is because their OS are not, well, important. And it hurts a lot, inferring from their ire.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

zichi, what do you estimate the download figure for applications on Microsoft Windows is? less than 40 billion applications? just because it is not from an online "store front" like Apple doesn't mean that it is not an application or worthy of been counted for on a platform.

And before I get the old your a Windows fanboy stuff I don't even use Windows, I do respect Microsoft for the eco system they built over the years though and the amount they contributed to computing as a whole I just like Linux for most of the stuff I do.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Hosefella is of course right.

All these numbers DO mean something, but what has not yet been pointed out is the amount of time spent USING the apps. I have probably 200 apps across my several idevices, but use maybe just 10 in a typical day.

A few I use on the order of two or three hours a day EACH, not including Hulu, which is good for "free" movies (you pay once a month the price of a big beer to watch as many flicks as you can stand).

So in my mind the only number that truly means anything is how much time you spend using apps, not the quantity you have downloaded for free or otherwise.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Hoserfella, Korlacan is probably more correct than you are. A lot of the apps out there are canine fecal matter. Once the user downloads them and realizes it's not what they thought it would be, they delete it. We've ALL done it and I'd wager even YOU'VE deleted an app since you got your phone. So no, all 40 billion downloads are NOT still on the phones.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

fadamor - Sure, I've deleted a few apps but probably no more than 10% of what I keep. The point is its an average of every man, woman, boy and girl on this planet downloading almost 6 apps each. And half that staggering number in 1 year alone. Amazing and indicative of Apple's superiority any way you look at it. No other company including Coca Cola can touch the imprint Apple has made on society.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Hard to find software on the store shelves anymore unless you buy it online and most of the manuals are pdf's. =it is all downloads. Books/cds/DVDs are trending the same way. For people with little room this is definitely the way to go.

On the other end some of the older software/books are gaining value and people are collecting it just like people with audio albums.

What do you do if the book, soft, audio is not available electronically. And what do physical stores sell anymore (your computer/game/audio/dvd store)?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

My brother-in-law didn't blink when paying $20 for a navigation app.

I smiled when I downloaded the Google Navigation app on Android - it was free and works beautifully.

I have downloaded about 400 android apps over 3 devices and 4 years. I have tried, used, experimented and kept or deleted. I try to keep only what I genuinely use. About 50 apps.

I have an ipod touch and have downloaded about 50 -60 apps and have deleted about 40 and have about 20 which are actually worthwhile.

Cant tell you how many software programs I installed and uninstalled on the PC over the years.

Apple is like the New McDonalds. 3 billion Burgers sold.......as Seinfeld said..." Ok I'll have one"

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I smiled when I downloaded the Google Navigation app on Android - it was free and works beautifully.

Problem is that, you know, he is alergic to cheap products, so no Android on his house. And he wanted a top nav app, he could pay for that, and so he did.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

LostinNagoyaJan. 10, 2013 - 11:21AM JST

he wanted a top nav app, he could pay for that, and so he did

Actually, the top nav app for iOS, both in numbers and ratings, is Google Maps. Hell, Google Maps more or less became the market leader in nav apps for iOS within a week. Sure you can pay a lot for a third rate nav system that uses the same broken map base as iOS6's map app, but high cost doesn't equal high quality. Especially when most of the other services use google's data anyway.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

40 billion downloaded, a remarkable feat. Do the know / will they publish the number of those apps subsequently deleted because they are crap?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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