Chinese downloads 25B app from Apple Store

A Chinese customer downloaded the 25 billionth app from Apple's App Store, pushing the mobile software store to a new milestone, Apple announced on Monday. More than 25 billion apps have been downloaded from App Store by the users of more than 315 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices worldwide, said Apple in a statement. The 25 billionth app, a free version of Disney's popular mobile video game "Where's my Water?" is downloaded by Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China. Fu will receive a 10,000-U.S.-dollar iTunes gift card as the winner of the App Store Countdown to 25 billion apps. "We'd like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded," said Apple in its press release. "When we launched the App Store less than four years ago, we never imagined that mobile apps would become the phenomenon they have, or that developers would create such an incredible selection of apps for iOS users." Downloads from Apple's App Store have been accelerating steadily since it was launched in mid-2008. In April 2009, app downloads hit one billion. Last January, the number topped 10 billion. And the company celebrated the 15 billionth download in last July.