Apple CEO Tim Cook broken out the usual prosaic figures before the main meat of the event.

We've already heard that 5 million iPhone 5 were sold in the opening weekend.

Apple say it's also sold 3 million of the new iPods (touches and nanos)

There are also 200 million devices running iOS 6: "The fastest upgrade rate on any hardware in history," Cook explains helpfully.

Linked to this, Cook said 160 million players have registered for Game Center, although the platform remains generally unloved by developers and players.

It would have been more helpful to get some activity figures. 

Nation of billions

In terms of apps, there are 700,000 apps on the App Store, of which 275,000 are for iPad apps (including universal apps).

More interesting is that the App Store has hosted 35 billion app downloads, with Apple now having paid out $6.5 billion to app developers since the store launched in 2009.

Of course, this is after Apple's 30 percent cut - around $2.8 billion, although it's generally considered to make a small loss on running the App Store.