App Store downloads top 300 million mark

iPhone owners have now downloaded more than 300 million mobile applications in the five months since computing giant Apple launched its App Store virtual storefront July 11. Apple did not issue a formal press announcement to celebrate surpassing the 300 million download benchmark, instead burying the information at the bottom of full-page print advertisements taken out in Friday's editions of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. In addition, Apple reports the number of iPhone applications available via the App Store now exceeds 10,000, although it did not distinguish between the percentage of free apps and premium apps.

The App Store topped the 200 million download benchmark Oct. 22, just over 100 days after its launch--at that time, the store boasted about 5,500 different applications in 19 categories including Games, Navigation, and Music. Last week, Apple published its list of the year's most downloaded iPhone and iPod touch applications.

According to research firm Gartner, Apple now ranks third in worldwide smartphone market share, with iPhone sales of 4.7 million in the third quarter of 2008--a 327.5 percent leap year-over-year. Nokia retained its overall smartphone lead with 42.4 per cent market share in Q3, but for the first time it suffered a sales decline of 3 percent year-over-year, moving 15.4 million units--Research In Motion captured second place with sales of 5.8 million and now controls 15.9 percent of the worldwide market, an increase of 81.7 percent over the third quarter of 2007.
Gartner adds that Apple's Mac OS X mobile operating system now accounts for 12.9 percent of the global smartphone OS market, edging past Microsoft's Windows Mobile (11.1 percent) but still trailing Symbian (49.8 percent) and RIM's BlackBerry (15.9 percent). For the first time, iPhone sales topped sales of WinMo devices worldwide and in North America: Apple and RIM together now account for more than 70 percent of the North American smartphone market.

For more on the latest App Store benchmark:
- read this Wall Street Journal article