Apple (AAPL) Apps Hit Two Billion Downloads

Close to one out of three people in the world has downloaded an app from the Apple (AAPL) App store. Or, a much smaller number of people have downloaded ten or twenty apps on their iPhones or iPods.

Apple announced today that it has hit two billion downloads. The electronics and computer firm also said that there are now more than 85,000 apps available to the more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide and over 125,000 developers in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program.

The store may be helping Apple, but does it help anyone else?

Some of the apps have great utility for handling personal finance, scheduling, or GPS functions. Those, of course, are among the most downloaded apps and probably make money for their creators and make life easier for the iPhone and iPod owners who picked them

That probably leaves 84,000 apps and 124,000 developers that are not really a part of the App Store ecosystem. Some of these programs may have only a handful of downloads and many of the developers have worked for months to create something that no one wants.

The App store has become overly complex for users, because it has too many products. Apple would do its customers a favor if it killed all but the 5% of apps that are downloaded the most and get ride of the app overload that iPhone and iPod users face if they want to find software with any real utility or entertainment value.

Douglas A. McIntyre