14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has issued a press statement to formally announce that its App Store has surpassed the 50 million downloads milestone. The announcement also includes the name of the person who won Apple’s $10,000/€7,768 iTunes Gift Card, as well as the app that stopped the timer.
The 50 billionth app which stopped Apple’s countdown timer was Say the Same Thing by Space Inch, LLC.
Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio, was the guy who downloaded the app. He is now entitled to receive a $10,000/€7.768 App Store Gift Card to spend any way he likes (in the App Store, of course).
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, commented on the achievement, saying “Apple would like to thank our incredible customers and developers for topping 50 billion apps downloaded.”
The 50 billion unique downloads exclude re-downloads and updates, Apple says.
“The App Store completely transformed how people use their mobile devices and created a thriving app ecosystem that has paid out over nine billion dollars to developers,” Cue said.
“We’re absolutely floored to cross this milestone in less than five years,” the executive added.
Apple also points out that its App Store opened in mid-2008 with just 500 apps. Thanks to its awesome developer community, Apple’s App Store now holds “an app for doing almost everything imaginable on an iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.”
The Cupertino giant quotes several key developers in its press statement, such as Rich Riley, CEO of Shazam, one of the most popular titles in the digital distribution venue.
“We were blown away with our success on the App Store back in 2008,” said Riley.
“And almost five years later we continue to be amazed with how much people love using Shazam on their iPhone or iPad.”
“With the App Store, we can effortlessly provide users with updates that give them great new features while making it easy for new users to discover and download Shazam for themselves,” the Shazam CEO said.