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Apple reaches 100,000 apps, 2 billion downloads

Company's App Store hits another milestone as it surpasses 100,000 applications available in less than 16 months since its launch.

Jim Dalrymple Special to CNET News
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to record music using a Macintosh. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. He currently runs The Loop.
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Jim Dalrymple

More than 100,000 apps are now available for download from Apple's App Store, making it the largest such retailer in the world.

App Store icon Apple

The App Store launched in July 2008 with just 500 applications. The store is now available in 77 countries, which has contributed to what Apple said Wednesday is well over 2 billion downloads.

Apps from the App Store work with both the iPhone and iPod Touch.

When introducing its new iPod Touch in September, Apple positioned the device as a superior gaming platform to Sony's PSP or Nintendo DS. Apple said its rivals charged too much for games and didn't offer enough selection. At the time, Apple had more than 21,000 game titles in the App Store, while Nintendo had 3,600 titles and Sony had 600.

The message apparently has gotten through.

"The App Store has forever changed the mobile gaming industry and continues to improve," Travis Boatman, vice president of Worldwide Studios at EA Mobile, was quoted as saying in Apple's press release Wednesday.

Not everything has been perfect with the App Store, however. Most notably, Apple's app approval process has caused frustration with developers, who are sometimes left in the dark about the reason an app is rejected.