Apple iOS App Store exceeds 40 billion downloads, J.J. Abrams is pleased

Apple has announced that its iOS App Store has exceeded 40 billion downloads, with nearly have that number coming just in 2012. Developers have been paid $7 billion from their app store creations.

Last week, a third party report claimed that there were a combined 1.76 billion downloads of iOS and Android apps between December 25th and 31st. Today, Apple announced that the total number of downloads from its iOS App Store has now exceeded the 40 billion mark, including nearly half of that number just in 2012.

Apple claims that during December, it had over two million downloads from the store. Since the app store launch, Apple claims that it has generated over $7 billion in revenue for app developers. That includes over $100 million in combined revenue for two development teams, Backflip Studios and Supercell, thanks to in-game purchases for their free-to-play games DragonVale and Clash of Clans.

The app store isn't just about games. A popular recent app is Action Movie FX, which was developed by Bad Robot Interactive, headed up by Lost creator and Star Trek director J.J. Abrams. The app blends in visual effects such as explosions and lasers to user created videos. Abrams said, " ... we’re just thrilled that millions of fans around the world were as excited as we were about the possibilities that this app brings."

Apple said that there are now 775,000 apps available for download and over 300,000 of them are native for the iPad.

Source: Apple | Image via Apple