After much anticipation from fans and Apple alike (along with shareholders, perhaps), the lofty goal of one billion served has finally been reached by the iPhone App Store. The counter page Apple had put up to celebrate the coming event now confirms that they have surpassed one billion total downloads.
In a separate announcement, the company also revealed that the winner of its billion app download contest is Connor Mulcahey; a 13 year-old iPhone owner from Weston, Connecticut which downloaded a contact information swapping application called Bump.
The speed at which the apps have been flying out the door has been incredible lately. If you recall, just over five weeks ago Apple had hit 800 million downloads since the original launch of the store back in July of 2008. That means that 20% of that one billion happened just within the last month. Part of that can be attributed to the hype Apple has generated, though probably much more of it can be attributed to the release of the iPhone SDK and the increasing number of programs available (now over 35,000).
It may be a good day for Apple, but they haven't gotten here without trouble. There have been several controversies related to the App store, ranging from Apple attacking third parties to squelching certain apps. Draconian entry rules or not, Apple has still managed to make their App Store an example of success. RIM and Google have both followed suit, crafting app stores of their own - and likely there will be many more to come.