App Store passes 1.5bn downloads

Apple has announced that more than 1.5 billion paid and free applications have been downloaded from its App Store, which has just celebrated its first birthday.

In a short statement the company said there are now more than 65,000 apps on offer and 100,000 developers in the iPhone Developer Program.

Apple said it has now shipped 40 million units of iPhone and iPod Touch combined to date.

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