One billion downloads from Apple's App Store

Stephen Withers
Friday, 24 April 2009 03:43

Business IT - Technology

An increasingly common strategy is to give away a 'lite' version of an application and then charge for the full version.

This might change slightly with the arrival of the iPhone 3.0 software, which includes support for in-app transactions. Rather than downloading a whole new application, it would be possible to activate additional levels within a game once a fee had been paid.

Apple has yet to announce which of the store's 35,000-plus applications was the target of the one billionth download.

Nor do we know who one the associated competition, which offered a prize bundle comprising a $10,000 iTunes gift card (that's a lot of music or apps), a MacBook Pro, a Time Capsule and an iPod touch.

So if you very recently either bought an app or lodged a manual entry, keep an extra-close eye on your email over the next few days and make sure your answering machine is working - Apple may be trying to contact you with the good news.

On second thoughts, don't. If, having been notified, the winner fails to respond within 48 hours, Apple will re-award the prize to a random winner, which means I'll be back in with a chance!

The winner's name should be made public by early May.