iOS device owners download an estimated 60 apps each

As Apple approaches reaching the 10 billion downloads milestone for its App Store, new estimates suggest that an average of 60 apps have been downloaded per iOS device sold.

This is five times greater than in 2008, when estimated downloads were around 10 apps per iOS device. Asymco analyst Horace Dediu arrived at the figure via a combination of official device and software sales figures and estimates.

He calculated that the Store currently sees over 30 million downloads per day, and rising.

He also noted that "if we measure downloads as a function of the number of months since store launch, we can see that Apps reached 10 billion downloads in less than half the time it took songs (31 vs 67 months.)"

With this in mind, he predicted that app downloads would surpass iTunes Music Store downloads "I suspect by March."

While many apps are free, Dediu notes that "as the number of apps attached to any single device continues to increase, apps create increasingly higher switching costs for users" - meaning there may be increasingly reluctance to move to non-Apple devices.