Following weeks of countdown fanfare, Apple has announced that its App Store has reached 50 billion downloads.
This number, the tech giant reveals, counts the number of individual application downloads, and does not include re-downloads.
The lucky individual who downloaded of the 50 billionth application will receive a whopping $10,000 iTunes gift card.
50 additional winners will receive a $500 iTunes gift card.
“Apple would like to thank our incredible customers and developers for topping 50 billion apps downloaded,” says Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The App Store completely transformed how people use their mobile devices and created a thriving app ecosystem that has paid out over nine billion dollars to developers. We’re absolutely floored to cross this milestone in less than five years.”
The App Store opened in July 2008 with 500 apps.