As of a few days ago and reported here, you can find over 10,000 applications available to download for the iPhone and iPod Touch. A surprise? Not really, but consider this: those 10,000 apps have been downloaded by users for over 300 million times as of yesterday, based on reports.

At least that’s what Apple is saying, which was spotted in the fine print of Apple’s new ad in the Business Section of the New York Times. This is a shocking number, but when you consider how quickly the iPhone has spread across the world, it isn’t that shocking really when you do the math.

Just less than three months ago, during the company’s recent conference call, Apple said it was on track to having its 200 millionth iPhone app downloaded. Well, we are now on 300 million, and it doesn’t look like the ride will slow down any time soon. In fact, i’d say 500 million is in sight in the next few months, and a billion perhaps 6 months after that.