Apple’s App Store hits 25 billion downloads

Apple announced early Saturday morning that its iOS App Store has reached 25 billion downloads, a figure it couldn't have imagined — certainly not this soon — when it launched the store back in 2008. Early Saturday morning, someone somewhere downloaded the 25 billionth app from Apple’s iOS App Store. The tech company immediately put up a message of appreciation on its website, saying, “A billion thanks. 25 times over. The App Store has reached 25 billion downloads. Thank you for getting us there.” Launching in July 2008, the App Store has been a huge success thanks to the popularity of Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices, onto which millions of people around the world load their apps. According to figures released by Apple this week, there are now over 550,000 apps in the store, created by 248,000 registered iOS developers in the US and countless more around the world. The company says it has so far paid royalties to developers in excess of $4 billion. iOS app downloads are happening at such a rate now that it shouldn’t be more than a couple of years before it hits the 50 billion milestone. The result of a competition to reward the person who pushed the app download counter to the 25 billion mark is yet to be announced, but someone out there will soon be receiving a $10,000 gift card redeemable in the Cupertino company’s various online stores. Let’s hope the winner, who’ll be getting a phone call from an Apple representative to inform them of their prize, doesn’t react in the same way as the winner of Apple’s previous competition celebrating 10 billion app downloads last year. She put the phone down on them.