It took Apple two and a half years to hit 10 billion App Store downloads - it's taken less than 6 months to take this total to up to 15 billion.

The figure, which blows the 4.5 billion Android app download milestone that was hit recently, has been announced by Apple, who also states that there are more than 200 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users worldwide.

“In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Thank you to all of our amazing developers who have filled it with over 425,000 of the coolest apps and to our over 200 million iOS users for surpassing 15 billion downloads.”

The 425,000 available apps figure also dismisses unofficial reports that circulated last month that Apple had topped 500,000 apps.

Apple also recently confirmed that the amount of native iPad apps in the App Store had crossed the 100,000 barrier - meaning 25,000 new iPad apps in just over 3 months since the 75,000 landmark was hit in March.

 

 

See also - Apple fails in Amazon Appstore lawsuit

And - 100,000 iPad apps now in the App Store