It took Apple nine months to get to 1 billion app downloads for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but it only took 3 months to get another half billion under its belt.

On July 11th, 2008 Apple launched the App Store as part of the iPhone 2.0 firmware update.  By July 14th, 2008 there had already been 10 million applications downloaded.  On April 24th, 2009 it was announced that Apple had hit a stunning 1 billion downloads.  Now, a mere 3 months since the last milestone, and one year and three days since launch, they have hit 1.5 billion downloads.

Considering that last we heard there were over 54,000 applications in the App Store, it isn’t surprising that speed keeps picking up, but it is still amazing how fast this number keeps growing.  It would be even more interesting to see how many of the downloads are paid apps verses free apps, but that isn’t the sort of thing Apple would ever share with the public.  It would also be interesting to know how many of those apps actually get retained after download as I know I have deleted several off of my iPod Touch after downloading them.

Still, a heck of a milestone for Apple.  Congratulations!