App-ropriate reward
It took less than a week for Apple to download the 140 million or so apps required to take it to the ten billion mark following its announcement of that imminent landmark.
Apple issued a press release on Saturday announcing that Gail Davis of Orpington in Kent had downloaded the ten billionth app from the App Store - an apparently paid version of Paper Glider (nice coincidence for Apple's PR) - and as a result will be sent an iTunes gift card worth $10,000.
That's about it really. Of course this is mainly a PR exercise by Apple, as exemplified by the quote below, but it does serve as a landmark in the explosion of the mobile app industry. Ten billion is a lot of anything, and even though the majority of them will have been free, that's still a massive install-base.
"With more than 10 billion apps downloaded in just two and a half years-a staggering seven billion apps in the last year alone-the App Store has surpassed our wildest dreams," said Philip Schiller, Apple's product marketing SVP. "The App Store has revolutionized how software is created, distributed, discovered and sold. While others try to copy the App Store, it continues to offer developers and customers the most innovative experience on the planet."
