Apple has announced they have surpassed the 3 billion download mark within their App Store. Somewhere in Cupertino Steve Jobs must have a huge smile on his face as it was just this past September where downloads reached 2 billion:

“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months—this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

So let's stop and think about this, iPhone and iPod touch users in 77 countries downloaded one billion applications within a 4 month period. That's pretty impressive and with no signs of slowing, it's a safe bet Jobs is right about the competition.

Apple has just announced that their iTunes App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch has passed the 2 billion downloads bar. Boom indeed.

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, says:

The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone. The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.

Other numbers include more than 85,000 apps now available from 125,000 registered developers, available in 77 countries around the world, for 50 million iPhones and iPod touches sold to date.

Jugger. Naut.

As part of the iPhone 3.0 Preview Event today, Apple announced that their iPhone OS, which powers both the iPhone and the iPod touch, is now on 30 million devices -- including 17 million iPhones (presumable 2G and 3G) by December, 2008. And while we're admittedly mathlexic around here, but that sounds like the first admission of iPod touch sales to us, which would peg them at 13 million?

Along with previous stats that have been guestimated (like 25,000 apps in the App Store), Apple also announced over 800 million app downloads (!!) to date, and 800,000 iPhone SDK downloads as well.

Staggering. Numbers. Indeed.