New record: Over 100,000 apps win App Store approval

ALERT: Ignore previous records; ignore previous records – the iPhone this weekend achieved the new record of approving over 100,000 apps for sale through the App Store.

That’s another 15,000 applications since Apple last confirmed how many software titles it is making available through the store, and confirms the velocity with which developers are throwing titles at the company’s next-gen mobile devices.

As reported by AppShopper, there were 101,561 approved apps, though availability of these varies by territory and just 92,870 of them are currently available through the App Store.

Similar data from analytics firm, Mobclix, reveals 103,295 apps as having been released in the last year.

Just last month, Apple revealed that over two billion applications have now been downloaded from iTunes, with over 85,000 apps then available from the 125,000 developers signed-up to its Dev Programme.

“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO at that time.

“The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it,” he added.

Indeed, the value of Apple’s platform extends way beyond its use to developers, with Volswagen recently making the brave and unusual move of launching a new vehicle in the US with a marketing campaign that begins exclusively with an iPhone app.

The free app, which is called "Real Racing GTI," puts players on the fictional Mayapan Beach racetrack, and is tied to a contest in which, the New York Times reports, registered players can win one of six limited-edition 2010 Volkswagen GTI’s (the new model).

Earlier in the year, Tim Ellis, VP-marketing at Volkswagen of America’s VW brand, said that car companies will be canceling conventional auto promotions as they “trim the fat” wherever they can while retaining “core media properties and launch budgets.”