Apple announced on Monday that more than 40 billion applications have so far been downloaded from its online App Store, which was launched in 2008.

Apple said in a press release that the App Store now has over 500 million active accounts, and that nearly 20 billion apps were downloaded in 2012 alone.

The App Store also hit a new record in December 2012, with over two billion downloads during the month.

A total of 775,000 different kinds of apps are available now for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users worldwide, and developers have been paid over seven billion U.S. dollars by Apple, said the company.

"It has been an incredible year for the iOS developer community," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said of the year 2012.

He noted that Apple will continue to invest in providing developers "with the best ecosystem so they can create the most innovative apps in the world."

In the press release, several app developers also hailed the wild success Apple's App Store had brought to them.

The App Store went online on July 10, 2008, one day before the iPhone 3G was launched. Google Play, the app store for Google's Android platform, was released three months later, and caught up with its Apple counterpart in the total number of apps in October 2012.

The timing for Apple's announcement might not be a casual selection. Last Friday, a research by technology news website The Sociable suggested that Google Play now is growing faster than the Apple App Store and will probably pass the million-app mark first this June.

Meanwhile, Apple often announces news during the running period of the Consumer Electronics Show, an annual event in Las Vegas the tech giant has stayed away from for years.

Source: Xinhuanet