App-solutely crazy
Apple's App Store is nearing the 10 billion downloads milestone and has launched a competition that will have app and iTunes fans salivating.
Apple's iTunes website is currently displaying a countdown/up clock that reads 9,859,378,290 (at 14.10) and it is gaining downloads at quite a pace as iPhone, iPad and iPod touch customers feed their app addictions.
Echoing a previous promotion to celebrate iTunes' 10 billionth download, Apple will reward the person who downloads the 10 billionth app with a $10,000 iTunes voucher.
Although the prize is in dollars, Apple's terms and conditions does not limit people from entering from outside the US. Entrants must be over 13 years of age and ‘a legal resident of a participating App Store country,' which means Brits are in with a chance.
At the current exchange rate, the prize should be around £6,300 if a Brit should win.
The App Store was launched in July 2008 and has since transformed the smartphone landscape. The store crossed the 1 billion download line just 9 months after its launch.
Apple is hoping to replicate its App Store's success having just launched the Mac App Store to give Mac users access to a whole bunch of apps, including downloads of Apple software packages like iMovie. Within 1 day of launch, 1 million apps were downloaded from the new platform.
Apple is currently trying to trade mark the term ‘app store' but is facing opposition from Microsoft, which believes the term is too generic to be trade marked and different manufacturers already use it.
