iOS App Store Hits One Million Active Applications

Apple’s U.S. iOS App Store reached a milestone early this month; the store now lists over one million active applications for the first time, according to independent data from Appsfire and AppShopper. Apple reached the million mark for all national stores combined earlier this year, but this weekend’s U.S. total alone represents a new record for the company.

It should be clarified that the one million figure represents active applications still listed on the store. Apple has approved approximately 1.4 million applications in total since the App Store launched in 2008, but many of those were removed by Apple or their respective developers over time.

There are some interesting data points that accompany this new record: according to Appsfire, nearly half of the available applications (473,000) are “optimized for iPad,” indicating that they are either universal applications that support all iOS platforms or iPad exclusive titles. Along those lines, nearly all apps (over 900,000) are compatible with the iPhone. The sheer number of applications means that most fail to gain traction, but Apple has still paid over $13 billion to developers since the store’s inception.

Apple has traditionally publicized App Store numbers in terms of total application downloads. The company celebrated the 50 billionth download in May 2013 with a $10,000 iTunes gift card giveaway, and noted during its October keynote that the store had reached more than 60 billion downloads. There’s no word yet on what the company plans to celebrate 100 billion downloads, a mark it should hit sometime in 2014.