There's no question about it any longer: The Apple App Store is a big market. It's not as big as, say, the soft drinks market, but it's big enough to be taken very seriously.
Developers have created 100,000 iPhone applications -- some of them are raking in seven figures per month -- and users have now downloaded more than three billion applications from the App Store.
The App Store is also a market that expands quickly. Exactly one year ago, 500 million applications had been downloaded from the store. Back then, Apple celebrated the milestone with a huge banner. Now, it's just a short announcement, with the inevitable self praise. Quoth Steve Jobs:
“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months—this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. 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.”