Apple Monday revealed that users had downloaded over 40 billion apps from its popular App Store since launch, with almost 20 billion of these downloads coming in 2012 alone. December 2012 was the most popular month till-date, accounting for 2 billion of those app downloads. Apple clarified that the number does not include re-downloads and app updates.
"It has been an incredible year for the iOS developer community," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "Developers have made over seven billion dollars on the App Store, and we continue to invest in providing them with the best ecosystem so they can create the most innovative apps in the world."
Apple also shared some interesting stats like the fact that the popular game Temple Run had been downloaded over 75 million times, and that the popular gaming titles DragonVale and Clash of Clans had brought in a combined total of over 100 million dollars. The press release also issued testaments to the quality of the iOS app ecosystem from the likes of Keith Shepherd (Temple Run), Autodesk (SketchBook), JJ Abrams (Action Movie FX) and Bottle Rocket Apps.
The App Store now offers more than 775,000 apps across 23 categories to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users with over 500 million actives iTunes accounts in 155 countries around the world, with more than 300,000 native iPad apps available.
October last year, Apple
introduced rupee pricing in India, letting Indian users pay for their apps in local currency via Indian credit cards.