iTunes app store reaches one billion downloads

Apple's iTunes App Store has succeeded in smashing through the one billion downloads mark that it has been bounding towards for the last few weeks, and it has done so within just nine months of launch.

Apple announced a little while ago that it was approaching the milestone and that to celebrate it was going to give one lucky winner a goody bag worth more than $13,000, and last night at about 10pm that moment came.

In a recent Q2 earnings call, Apple's COO Tim Cook revealed that diversity of apps was part of the store's success story, with more than 35,000 currently available.

In the report over at Afterdawn.com, Cook confirms that sales of the iPhone and iPod Touch have now exceeded 37 million units, doubling year on year, and attributes the iPod Touch's success in-store to gaming.

We wonder how long the next billion will take, will it only be seven months this time, or will the competitors' store launches take its toll on business? Either way, if the whisperings of a new iPhone coming in June are accurate then Apple should have little trouble in keeping the downloads coming.