100 million app download milestone just the beginning says Samsung

Samsung has hit a milestone of 100 million app downloads in its mobile & TV application store, just 10 months after opening.

The app download count has been steadily ticking along since the launch of Samsung's Wave smartphone in June 2010 but company officials predict that app downloads will accelerate in 2011.

"We are anticipating that Samsung Apps will show a rapid growth in 2011, especially with a variety of the upcoming bada device line-up" said Kang-Hyun Kwon, senior vice president of Media Solution Center, Samsung Electronics.

Samsung Apps now sports more than 13,000 applications - a huge improvement from its January total of 380 but a far cry from the likes of Apple and Google whose app stores contain upwards of 350,000 and 200,000 apps respectively.

To put Samsung's 100 million app downloads in perspective, Apple announced it had hit 10 billion app downloads in January and AndroLib estimates current Android Market app downloads to exceed 3.8 billion.

Samsung's most downloaded apps include Magic Torch, Need for Speed Shift and Asphalt 5, said the company.

"Transportation and navigation apps - such as London Traffic and Ndrive France - are also popular downloads," said Samsung in a March 24 statement.

"The most popular apps also reflect cultural characteristics; recipe and wine apps are popular in France, Germans love football related apps and Italians are fans of film information apps."

France, Germany and Spain account for more than 40 percent of all downloads in the app store.

To celebrate its app download milestone, Samsung has launched a weekly prize draw.

Customers who download apps from the store over the next month will go into the running to win a Samsung Galaxy Tablet, Galaxy Player, USB sticks, or Samsung Apps vouchers.

The competition runs until April 30. More details are available at http://www.samsungapps.com.