Ten billion app downloads from Apple App store

Briton Gail Davis from Orpington in Kent has won an iTunes gift card worth $10,000 (£6,200) for ordering the ten billionth app download from the Apple App Store.

Though she is the account holder, the download of the free Paper Glider app was made by her daughter, and when Ms. Davis received a congratulatory phone call from Apple themselves, she thought that it was a hoax, and rejected the call.

Ms. Davis stated that “[she] had a moment of blind panic [when she realised] but thankfully Apple called me back... they said it's not a joke and you are the winner.”

The app store has only been open for two and a half years, but after a popular start the last year alone has seen seven billion downloads.

With many apps being free or having a trial, “Lite” version, many customers have sampled hundreds of the games, personal organisation and digital media apps on offer.

With the software development kit costing relatively little, small-time developers have made reasonable salaries from one-off popular apps costing only a few dollars each, with Apple receiving a 30% cut of any earnings.

However, even with the 160 million iDevices around the world running 350,000 separate apps, there is stiff competition for the California-based company in the form of devices running the RIM and Android operating systems from Blackberry and Google respectively.

Meanwhile the Apple iPad tablet is also facing fierce competition with over 80 tablets unveiled at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011.