We all saw the stories last week about the Apple AppStore celebrating it’s first birthday.  This week, a story over at AppleInsider has Apple stating now that the AppStore has served up 1.5 Billion (yes – Billion with a “b“) applications in the year that it has been open. More important, the rate of app downloads is continuing to increase – more than half a billion in the last 3 months alone!

I don’t know how many of those were free applications (or re-downloads) as opposed to paid downloads (the story says the “rumor” is 15-40 free apps for every 1 paid app), but no matter how you examine it those figures are staggering, dwarfing other mobile platform downloads.

MS, with many more Windows Mobile devices on the market, has really been unable to rally any kind of serious application aftermarket.  The opinion seems to be that most people use the devices in a “vanilla” state – with very few applications – but actual statistics are difficult to come by due to the fractured nature of the market.  The upcoming MS Marketplace may be a step in the right direction, but with carriers like Verizon resisting that move, refusing to put the marketplace app on their devices, you have to be concerned about the potential for success/failure.

So far, Apple’s missteps, like an inconsistent, often heavy-handed application approval process, don’t seem to have hurt their momentum.  Do you think the Apple AppStore is going to continue to dominate the mobile app market like iTunes (ITMS) dominates online music sales, or are other players poised to make significant inroads?