Apple says App Store downloads top 15 billion

Phone, iPad and iPod Touch users have downloaded more than 15 billion apps for their gadgets, Apple Inc. said on Thursday.

The milestone was announced on the same day that Apple said it was working to fix a security issue for the three popular tech products that a Germany agency warned could be used by criminals to gain access to confidential data.

The company crossed the 10 billion downloads mark in January. There are more than 425,000 paid and free apps available on Apple's App Store, and more than 100,000 were made specifically for the iPad tablet. They range from the useful to the quirky, from games to productivity tools to magazines, social networks and children's storybooks.

Apple said more than 200 million of its iOS devices -- that is, the iPhone, IPad and iPod Touch -- have been sold around the world to people in 90 countries.

Shares of the Cupertino, Calif., based company climbed $5.92, or 1.7 percent, to $357.68 in afternoon trading Thursday.

Apple says : "Use our Apple stores Wi-Fi to download Lion"

Apple store representatives today said that although its Genius Bar technicians won't install Lion for customers, Mac owners can use a store's Internet connection to download the 4GB upgrade.

Customers can bring their Mac notebooks into any Apple store, then use the store's Wi-Fi network to download Lion next month, representatives from several stores said today.

That may be a way users stuck with a slow or metered connection -- a dial-up account, for instance, or a satellite-served connection -- can obtain the upgrade.


Apple has spelled out deployment options for volume customers, including schools, universities and businesses, saying that they will be able to download Lion once, then copy an installer to multiple Macs.

Lion is slated for a July release and will be sold for $29.99 only through the Mac App Store.