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60 Million iPhone Apps Downloaded, Says Steve Jobs

by Thomas Ricker on August 11, 2008 at 09:39 AM

Steve Jobs, presumably speaking from a hyperbaric chamber where he's being nourished with an infusion of liquified developers-souls before his next public appearance, had a few interesting tidbits about the AppStore for the Wall Street Journal this morning. Namely, users have downloaded some 60 million programs for the iPhone, representing sales of about $30 million since the launch last month -- a 30/70 revenue split between Apple and developers, respectively.

"The thing's going to crest a half billion soon," Jobs added, "I've never seen anything like this in my career for software." He went on to say that phone differentiation is no longer about radios and antennas (or uh, battery life) but about software.

Steve also confirmed the controversial iPhone application kill switch in the event that Apple inadvertently approves a malicious program for distribution. Jobs said, "hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull."

As to the $999.99 'I Am Rich' application, the dubious download that displayed nothing but a glowing red gem, pulling that from the store was a "judgment" call. Sure, but that doesn't explain how it made it through the vetting process to begin with.

Tags: app store, apple, AppStore, breaking news, BreakingNews

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