So much for Instagram defections, displaces its buyer Facebook as No. 1 iOS App

Élyse Betters | Apr 11 2012 - 6:59 am PT

O.K., here is another Instagram story, but now its about the iOS app landing the No. 1 free app spot in the App Store for the first time—despite much media attention on the subject of it selling out to Facebook.

Hipsters everywhere donning their skinny jeans took to Twitter to post one last heavily filtered image, while threatening to delete their Instagram accounts after news broke earlier this week that social network giant Facebook bought the app for a cool $1 billion.

Many tweets and reports even detailed how to keep Instagram photos from Mark Zuckerberg’s acquisitive hands through export services like Instaport.me that essentially leave users free and clear to erase the Instagram app from their smartphones.

The public’s warning now seems empty, of course, as Instagram itself used Twitter this morning to announce its sudden surge in popularity. It looks as though the intense press scrutiny only encouraged the iOS app to soar up the charts. Meanwhile, its new parent company does not even sit in the top 25 free apps in Apple’s App Store.

[tweet https://twitter.com/#!/instagram/statuses/189845445458132992]

Instagram recently unveiled that it boasted 30 million users on the iPhone. It is only a matter of time before the trendy photo-sharing app doubles in size, especially due to the success of its new Android counterpart and Facebook’s wide reach.

It is worth noting that although more people are joining Instagram, defections are still occurring. Those disdained by the acquisition can still make good on their promises and delete away. After all, there is no shortage of alternative photography apps for iOS devices.