The countdown is on to an historic number in the world of mobile applications.
And when we say countdown, we mean a literal countdown.
On Friday, Apple launched a digital countdown clock to track app downloads all the way through to a major milestone for both Apple and the mobile app community at large.
“The App Store is about to hit 10 billion downloads,” the Apple website reads. “The countdown has started. And someone’s going to win.”
The prize up for grabs for the lucky downloader who strikes the magic number is an iTunes gift card with a value much greater than any you’ve probably seen your lifetime. As it turns out, Apple is giving away an iTunes gift card valued at $10,000 – almost enough to purchase all of the “fart apps” now available.
“As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide,” Apple says. “Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks.”
Only one year ago, Apple boasted of the App Store reaching 3 billion downloads. In 2010 alone, approximately 7 billion mobile applications were downloaded. The App Store saw only 1 1/2 billion app downloads during its first year of operation.
