Fifty Billion Apple App Downloads

Last week Apple launched a real-time counter as downloads from the App Store homed in on a staggering total of 50 billion apps. The company has promised a $10,000 gift card to the lucky devil who downloads the milestone app and $500 gift cards to the next 50 people who download an app.

The App Store contains more than 850,000 downloadable apps, and those apps are available in 155 countries. Apple said last month that it has paid developers more than $9 billion in royalties.

For comparison, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) said last September that users had downloaded more than 25 billion apps for Android-based devices. According to research firm Canalys, Google Play leads in the number of apps downloaded, with 51% of the total.

Apple, however, leads in revenue generation, accounting for 74% of all revenue, including the download stores at Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY). It is important for Apple to promote its lead because the larger a platform’s interface the more likely it is to get even larger. The network effect is, indeed, a powerful thing.