In early July, Hearst released its first iPad app version of Popular Mechanics for $1.99. Five days later, the company claimed the app was downloaded more than 10,000 times. A Hearst rep told paidContent that it has since sold 40,000 downloads of the PM app to date.

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In all, Hearst Magazines offers 22 apps. But so far, all 14 of its mag titles, including Esquire, Cosmopolitan and Seventeen, are available as paid digital replicas through the Zinio online storefront—not as necessarily as individual, standalone apps. Hearst has also been selling five other magazine spin-off apps, like Esquire’s Big Black Book and Harper’s Bazaar’s Runway Report, through Zinio.

But this month, Hearst is scheduled to begin selling its Esquire app for the iPad (it’s had one for the iPhone since the end of last year.) Next up for the iPad is Marie Claire in the fall, followed by Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar and Food Network.

At the same time, Condé Nast is also briskly working on rolling out more apps and is preparing a major study of consumers’ mobile habits for next month.

With all the competition, Hearst has lately felt that it’s a good time for it to start talking up its app work. The formation of the App Lab may seem a bit gimmicky, but it could help focus advertisers’, agencies’ and consumers’ attention on what it has to offer.