App discovery company Chomp said that Apple has approved the 500,000 App Store app. According to app review website 148Apps, which published the figures, this total includes products that have been withdrawn from sale for various reasons, and that the total number of live apps for currently supported iOS devices is approaching 400,000 – a similar number claimed by other app metrics companies. It was noted that 37 percent of apps are free, and that the average price for paid apps is US$3.64 – undoubtedly bolstered by the growth of higher-value apps targeting the vendor’s iPad.

The most popular paid application of all time, based on time spent in top position at the store, is Rovio’s Angry Birds, with 275 days in number one position – with an additional 23 days added if its Angry Birds Rio variant is taken into account. Indeed, Angry Birds Rio is in ninth position in its own right. There is a significant gap between first and second place, with number-two ranked The Moron Test having been the most popular app for 38 days. The top apps chart is dominated by games.

According to the research, there are 85,569 unique developers, and on average each developer creates 4.6 apps. The value of all live apps currently is US$891,982.24.