Care to have a look at the page Apple is prepping to post once the App Store hits a billion downloads? The screenshot to the left is just that. Found and snapped by a MacMagazine reader (via Modmyi), the page shows Apple's promo for the billionth downloaded iPhone app.

“As of today, nearly one billion apps have been downloaded around the globe,” Apple said on its website, upon posting the countdown timer. “So, we just want to say thanks — a billion. Download an app and you’ll automatically get the chance to win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro. Just go to the iTunes Store, browse the App Store, and download your best app yet,” the post reads on the new iPod + iTunes page.

iPhone and iPod touch owners can download as many as 25 apps per day, none of which have to be paid titles. Apple has also set up a page of top paid and free apps. The Billion App Countdown Promotion is open only to entrants who are 13 years of age or older at the time of entry, and legal residents of the United States or the District of Columbia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom, if available. Interested parties are advised to visit the iTunes Store front page in their respective country for details. The contest ends after the download of the billionth app.

Analysts are suggesting the milestone is to be reached on April 23, Thursday, with 5.1 million apps being downloaded daily. A survey showing how many downloaded titles are actually paid apps, and how many of the iPhone users downloading software off the App Store actually know what they are doing has been carried out in the UK. The survey of 1,000 UK consumers revealed that only 24.2% of respondents knew what the App Store was.