Apple App Store: 15 Billion Downloads & Counting

Apple’s App Store has generated 15 billion downloads since its launch in July 2008, Apple has announced.

The App Store now offers more than 425,000 apps, 100,000 of which are created specifically for Apple’s tablet, the iPad.

Apple has paid developers more than $2.5 billion to date. Given Apple’s 30/70 revenue split with app developers, that means Apple itself has netted more than $1 billion directly from app sales.

In January 2010, the App Store surpassed 3 billion downloads, and in January 2011, Apple announced that the App Store surpassed 10 billion downloads. It took Apple’s App Store only six months to jump from 10 billion to 15 billion downloads.