Apple’s App Store has reached the 150,000 apps milestone this week. As the world's largest (and best) mobile application store, the iPhone and iPod Touch have access to over 27,000 books and over 28,000 games, which have generated over 3 billion downloads since its launch in July of 2008. Back in December of ‘08, O’Reilly examined the App Store, and found that 22% of the then small 10,000 applications were provided for free by the developers. Now things have changed nearly 2 years later.

According to analytics company Distimo, the App Store's 150,000 app catalog has a ratio of 75% paid apps to only 25% free apps; compare that to the open-source and rapidly growing Android Market, and you’ll find a ratio of 60% paid to 40% free. And if you remember (maybe if you read LaptopMemo), at the January 27th iPad announcement, Steve Jobs told the media that the App Store contained over 140,000 apps. That extra 10,000 came within 16 days of the original announcement.

Read

<div