Apple Thoughts: 500 Million Apps Downloaded

"Apple announced Friday that over 500 million apps have been downloaded from its App Store. Amazingly, the company only reached 300 million downloads on December 5, meaning its App Store has enjoyed accelerating growth since the holiday season. The announcement, which was made in the form of an advertisement on Apple's home page, also claims that the App Store now features more than 15,000 apps."

No wonder everyone is scrambling to come up with their own version of the App Store. It works. Palm is doing it, RIM is doing it, and Microsoft is supposedly looking into it. I'd say that's a testimony to the App Store's success as much as the number of apps that made their way out of the store and onto people's devices.