Apple has announced that it has sold over 50 million iPhone and iPod Touch devices, which Apple started selling just a little more than two years ago.

The App Store, which itself is less than 15 months old, has distributed over two billion downloads from a selection of 85,000 apps. This second billion comes only five months after the first billion downloads, indicating a rapidly accelerating pace. There is no data on how many of these downloads are paid and how many are free, but 65,000 of the available titles are paid titles.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/28/app_store_hits_two_billion/

here are the numbers
http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/28/apple-nintendo-sony-technology-personal-tech-2billion.html

pretty impressive. I still thinks they need an Iphone/Itouch with trigger buttons than it would be better for gaming.

considering how much of the market is going to handhelds, i hope sony and nintendo take apple more serious in their next gen hardware line up. while in their current form apple isn't as much of a threat, they are in a strong position to expand the touch/iphone and activity target gamers (especially casual gamers), which could be a big hit for the industry as far as future growth and its relevance in the electronics industry.

you could also easily see someone like microsoft use its zune platform (and their other online services) to expand into a handheld space fairly easy with the xbox brand. while pspgo and dsware is a step in the same direction, its not near to where apple and microsoft are in the space.

I always take Forbes with a grain of salt. I've seen them make too many factual errors.

For example, this quote:

"Of the 85,000 applications available through the App Store, something like 80% are free."

Directly contradicts what is posted in the article I linked, which is backed up by this site:

http://www.mobclix.com/appstore/1/

It looks like Brian Caulfield just assumed that the larger piece of the pie represented free apps. Not that he doesn't raise some very astute points.