Apple’s iOS App Store Hits 50 Billion Downloads

Another milestone for Apple: the company announced late Wednesday that it has surpassed 50 billion app downloads from its iOS App Store. The announcement marks the end of a “50 Billion App Countdown” contest that began on May 2. The winner of the contest, judged by Apple to the be individual who downloaded the 50 billionth app, will receive a $10,000 gift card valid on the iOS, iTunes, and Mac App Stores. 50 additional winners will be chosen by Apple to receive $500 gift cards.

Apple launched the App Store in July 2008 and reached its first billion apps downloaded in April 2009. Since then, downloads have exploded with the increasing popularity of the company’s iOS devices.

Apple announced 25 billion app downloads in March 2012 and 40 billion in January 2013. On a related note, Google announced today during the company’s annual I/O conference that 48 billion Android apps have been installed to date.

Since the App Store’s inception, Apple has approved nearly 1.2 million apps, and about 850,000 are still currently for sale (some apps were removed from the store or weren’t updated and became obsolote as the iOS software evolved).

For the sake of comparison, Apple announced in February 2013 that it had sold 25 billion songs on the iTunes store. Many of the apps download on the iOS App Store are free, resulting in significantly more downloads than song purchases, despite the iTunes Store’s ten years of operation.

Apple promises to announce the winners of its most recent contest shortly.