Instagram hits 1M iPhone users in two months

Photo-sharing application for the iPhone rockets after lauching on Oct. 6

There are a lot of apps for the iPhone. So many, that you probably think that it is impossible to break in with a new one, and be successful. Well, one company has just proved you wrong.

Instagram, a photo-sharing app and service for iPhone users, announced Wednesday that it has garnered one million users since the app was first launched on October 6. This is pretty fast. But not as fast as the PayPal app, which saw a million downloads in under three weeks.

The Instagram app, which is free to download, currently enjoys a four-and-a-half star user rating in the iTunes store. It also has a feature that, in this reporter's humble opinion, puts it head and shoulders above many competitors. It runs smoothly on the iPod Touch. There just aren't many, if any at all, photo-sharing apps that work with the iPods. That's because many photo-sharing apps depend on a built-in camera. Additionally, the app also supports use with the iPad.

San Francisco-based Instagram also recently made a deal with well-known check-in service, FourSquare, which will allow location-based photos posted on Instagram to be shared with a users' Foursquare friends. The company is also currently in talks with Gowalla about putting a similar deal in place, but nothing definite has been announced.

Other companies in the niche of mobile photo sharing include Hipstamatic and Picplz. Picplz, which runs on both iPhones and Android-based phones, also focuses on the social aspect of photo sharing. Hipstamatic mainly focuses on adding special effects or filters to images, which can then be shared on sites such as Flickr.

Ironically, a day before this photo-sharing site announced its one-millionth download, users of the site noticed that their photos and comments were being publicly distributed on a copycat site. No official response to the copycat site had been given to end users, as of the time of the writing of this piece. This is a violation of the Instagram terms of service.

The apps sudden spurt of interest was not enough to put it in Apple's official top 20 most popular apps. Currently, the top spot is held by Puck Billiards, a game that costs $1.99.

Instagram has yet to respond to request for comment.

(Photo from Instagram)