Most likely coming close to a billion, on the downloads side

Feb 11, 2009 10:35 GMT  ·  By

We recently decided to take another look at iPhone app trackers' listings only to find that the App Store has seemingly achieved yet another milestone – 20,000 apps available for download onto an iPhone or iPod touch.

If Apptism's listings are correct (again), Apple has accepted over 5,000 new applications since announcing the 15,000 apps landmark, along with the half a billion downloads last month. Currently, the tracker says we're looking at 20,240 apps available for immediate download.

In January, Apple made it official that more than 15 thousand applications and games had been added to the App Store, while the total amount of downloads cumulated to 500 million. The number is impressive indeed, but most of those downloads are likely free.

“There are more than 15,000 apps in the App Store, and so far iPhone users have downloaded an incredible 500 million, in every category, from games to business,” Apple proudly stated. “Applications designed for iPhone are nothing short of amazing,” the company continued, “That’s because they leverage the groundbreaking technology in iPhone — like the Multi-Touch interface, the accelerometer, GPS, real-time 3D graphics, and 3D positional audio. Just tap into the App Store and choose from thousands of applications ready to download now.”

The App Store works over cellular networks and Wi-Fi, so iPhone users can wirelessly download applications directly onto their devices and start using them immediately. Applications are sometimes free to download and use, or charged to the user’s iTunes account. The App Store notifies them when updates are available for their apps.

Should the number of apps again be coupled with a round number of downloads, say a billion, Apple is sure to announce the feat, one way or another. In the meanwhile, leave a comment with the number of apps you've grabbed from the App Store (their names too, if you wish).