Jan 23, 2011 16:25 GMT  ·  By

Apple has announced the winner of its '10 Billion Apps' contest - Gail Davis, a Britih mom whose daughters downloaded the winning app that nabbed the family a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card.

Apple’s official announcement goes:

Apple® today announced that more than 10 billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store℠ by the more than 160 million iPhone®, iPod touch® and iPad™ users worldwide. The 10 billionth app downloaded, Paper Glider, was purchased by Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK. As the winner of the App Store Countdown to 10 Billion Apps, Gail Davis will receive a $10,000 iTunes® Gift Card.

The report includes a statement from Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, who said, “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.”

Schiller added “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.”

Apple’s report continues with a brief description of the iTunes App Store, which confirms that Apple has reached a whopping 350,000 unique titles for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. 60,000 of those are native iPad apps.

The web based venue is available in 90 countries around the world where customers can choose apps from 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel, Apple said.

As noted above, the winning app was Paper Glider (iTunes link), a free game by Neon Play.

Interviewed by BBC Radio 5 Live, Gail Davis joked that, “I have to confess it wasn’t me who downloaded it but my daughters.”

Davis reportedly thought that the initial phone call from Apple’s PR was a prank, and hung up. Apple called back to confirm, again, that she was the winner of Apple’s 10 Billion Apps contest.