Apple App Store hits 1.5 Billion Downloads

Think the mobile application thing is just a fad? Apple iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion - yes, billion - applications.

Some folks might still be thinking that the idea of mobile applications is just a flash in the pan, but there’s a reason Research in Motion, Microsoft, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and other industry players are all hustling to get their own application stores up and running: in the year since Apple introduced its App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch, users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications. Like the iTunes Store before it, Apple looks to be setting the bar for the mobile applications business, with over 100,000 developers signed up for its program and over 65,000 applications available for its mobile platforms.

“The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in a statement. “With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up.”

Of course, the App Store is not without issues, both in terms of application quality (there are a few stinkers in the bunch) and Apple’s still-mysterious process for approving applications for sale or distribution via the App Store. Some applications have been rejected ostensibly for duplicating functionality Apple provides with its own core applications, while others have been rejected out of hand (such as the $999 “I am Rich”), for inappropriate content, or merely for accessing Internet-based content Apple deems inappropriate, even if that content is readily accessible to Apple’s own built-in Safari Web browser.