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iPhone App Store hits 1.5 billion downloads

It's going to be difficult for others to catch up to the popularity of the Apple app store.

“The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up.”

That’s probably true, according to Pete Meyers, associate publisher at O’Reilly and editor of the new book Best iPhone Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders.