Apple counts 1 billion app store downloads

It's not every day that Apple throws numbers around. The company only sparingly uses them, and when it does, it's only to illustrate its most distinguished achievements. Today, the company dropped a couple: Nine months, and One billion downloads.

In the nine months that the iTunes App Store has been open, more than a billion applications have been downloaded, according to the company. That means iPhone/iTouch owners were downloading an average of 3.5 million applications per day, or roughly 33 applications per user.

It's an illustrious accomplishment indeed, and quickly follows Apple's recent earnings report, where the company said its net income had risen 15% to $1.21 billion, and that more than 37 million iPhones and iPod Touches have been sold.

Apple dedicates a section of its site today to the most popular applications by download. The top 20 money-earning apps of all time include 15 games, including Tetris, iShoot, Bejewled 2, and Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D. The rest of the top paid apps include Ocarina, Pocket Guitar, iBeer, and iFart Mobile. The most-downloaded free apps are mostly non-game, including Facebook Mobile, The Weather Channel, Google Earth, and Shazam.

Earlier this month, based upon T-Mobile figures, it was determined that the Android Market was averaging around 40 apps per user, but as Pinch Media explained, the app store model is designed for maximum turnover. That is, apps are designed to have maximum impact on "day one," since most apps are never used after the first day.