The impressive new figure follows a successful Christmas period for mobile and tablet apps with approximately 1.2 billion apps downloaded over the festive season as new consumers unwrapped their new devices and headed swiftly to the Android and Apple store.
While iPad apps are being downloaded far more frequently than apps on Android-based tablets, with recent figures stating that 440 million apps have been downloaded on slabs hosting the Google operating system, 2012 should see things start to change significantly.
In 2012, there are a host of new Android tablets due to be released which should see a surge in app downloads, including the ASUS Transformer Prime and Amazon Kindle Fire, as well as offerings from ACER, Toshiba, Samsung and Google.
Analysts believe that recent interest in Amazon’s Kindle Fire has caused a slowdown in sales of the iPad over the last month; though we’re sure Apple won’t be too concerned with current estimates that approximately 13 million iPads were sold in the final quarter of 2011.
There’s also a rumour that Apple is working on a cheaper version of the iPad, complete with a smaller screen, to help boost sales of its popular device and compete directly against Kindle Fire. And then there's the iPad 3, of course, which is set to be announced at some point this year. Overall, it looks like 2012 should to be a good year for both Apple and Android.