Apps Store: 1.5 billion downloads later, the Apple juggernaut continues

Beating the likes of Google, Nokia, RIM and Verizon, Apple has already taken the honours in the Apps store roll outs. It has also sold 1.5 million mobile applications for its iPhone and is counting more. While consumers find easy to buy apps by using the familiar iTunes interface; for apps publishers, the Apps stores provide the most efficient way to sell as operation and distribution costs are nil and the developer can afford to focus his resources in promoting his product on the Apps store.
The SDK 3 platform from Apple is also gaining more acceptance by more developers over other platforms for developing apps. To put it concisely, the competitors are unable to create a world that revolves around their products, a trick that Apple has mastered well.
The only other vendor that understands branding at that level is Nokia but then it is caught up in its own Smartphone problems and the Ovi Store has not had a great start. The other company RIM, continues to focus on the physical device at the expense of apps driven excitement.