Apple isn't officially in attendance at CES 2013, but that hasn't stopped the Cupertino firm from making a big announcement today anyway. Apple today revealed that the App Store has served up over 40 billion downloads to date, which it points out are unique and not re-downloads or updates, and that nearly half of that figure came in 2012 alone. December 2012 was a big contributor to that 40 billion plus figure, as Apple says that there were a record-breaking 2 billion downloads last month alone. There are now more than 775,000 apps in total available in the App Store.

The App Store officially debuted on iOS (then iPhone OS) in mid-2008, and it recently got a bit of a makeover with the release of iOS 6 last year. Now that the App Store has surged past the 750,000 app mark, it'll be interesting to see how long it takes the storefront to hit one million apps, a milestone that I'm sure that Apple is looking forward to. So iOS folk, with over 40 billion downloads served and 775,000 apps available, what are some of your favorite apps on the App Store? If you need some inspiration, you can find a list of Taylor's favorites right here.

Via Apple