ple has announced its popular App Store is close to reaching a remarkable milestone. The company says it is close to reaching 25 billion apps downloaded.
Apple has even set up a counter where the number of downloaded apps can be watched, and by watching the 'clock', it's clear there are several apps being downloaded per minute, even second.
The rate apps are being downloaded at a rapid rate. In addition to the popularity of apps, this may also partially be due to the fact Apple is running a contest in order to celebrate the event of users downloading 25 billion apps.
The company says on the counter page, "As of today, nearly 25 billion apps have been downloaded worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 25 billionth app, and you could win a £6,500 App Store Gift Card.* Just visit the App Store and download your best app yet." (official rules can be found here, and Apple says no purchase or download is required to win)
There is a limit, Apple says only 25 entries per person per day will be registered.
According to PC Magazine, if Apple hits that 25 billion mark by the end of the month, that means the company has added 15 billion apps to its count at this time last year. PC Magazine reported Apple hit 10 billion downloaded apps in Jan. 2011.
The PC Magazine article also noted Google's Android Market hit 10 billion app downloads as of the close of 2011 and users are currently downloading approximately one billion apps a month.
Business Week highlighted the battle for mobile this past week, as there is no clear dominator in this highly critical market.
"Mobile is the biggest platform war ever," says Bill Whyman, an analyst with International Strategy & Investment.
Currently both Apple and Google are duking it out, but there are other contenders to consider, with no clear leader likely going to emerge in the near future, reported Business Week. There is a prediction by Cisco, however, that there will be more mobile devices than humans this year.
"By the end of 2012, the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of people on earth, and by 2016 there will be 1.4 mobile devices per capita," a recent Cisco forecast said.
Cisco also noted the average smartphone use nearly tripled in 2011.
How many of those devices will be Apple is not set in stone, however, in the meantime, some lucky winner will receive a $10,000 gift card from the company in the near future.
Last week Digital Journal reported Apple stock hit $500 per share.
