Filed under: Cult of Mac, Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
A billion iPhone apps downloaded. Coming soon.
Could it be Apple has delivered almost a billion iPhone/iPod touch apps (both free and paid)? The answer is a definite yes, and Apple has posted a page counting down (or counting up, really) to the big event. As I write this they're at 928 million apps and change. It's an amazing number, and Apple is celebrating the event with a contest. Fill out a form, no purchase required, and have a chance to win a $10,000US iTunes gift card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule and a MacBook Pro. Apple will let you enter up to 25 times a day (!) until the billionth app is sold. Gee, I could use an app that could automate all those entries. (Clarification: Downloading an app from now until the contest closes counts as an entry. You can do that 25 times per day.)
Apple also has a link to the top selling free and paid apps (link opens iTunes). FYI, the most popular free apps are Facebook, Google Earth and Pandora. The most popular paid apps are Crash Bandicot Nitro Cart 3D, Koi Pond and Enigmo.
When Apple hits that billionth app it will be a big deal, and stand by for a big blast of publicity and commentary. It will also spark more conversation about the copycats who are jumping in the pool at Microsoft, RIM and Google (Android).
Congrats Apple. How long will it be before you hit 2 billion?
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mike said 11:43AM on 4-10-2009
They say you can enter the contest up to 25 times a day, but I when I tried to enter a second time I was told "You have entered to many times today."
From #4 on the rules, (), "The use of any automated launching or entry software or any other means that permits the entrant to automatically enter repeatedly or in excess of the entry limitations is prohibited." Also from #4, each download from the AppStore equals one entry.
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Duncan said 12:00PM on 4-10-2009
Exactly, AppStore downloads count as entries, and you can enter with the AppStore up to 25 times, you can only enter the "no download necessary" contest once.
ch0rtle said 11:56PM on 4-10-2009
Love their misspelling, BTW. "_to_ many times."
Adam said 12:20PM on 4-10-2009
"Limit: Regardless of which method of entry is used to enter the Promotion, only twenty-five (25) entries per person and/or iTunes account and/or email address, per day will be granted."
Chris said 11:50AM on 4-10-2009
I was only allowed one entry
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Mike said 11:59AM on 4-10-2009
If you read the contest home page, it says you are automatically entered whenever you download an app from the app store (up to 20 times per day). I suppose you only get one web-entry per day, but up to 20 entries daily in total. I guess I'll just download 20 apps daily and delete them.
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Josh said 12:01PM on 4-10-2009
I was only allowed one also, but it doesn it based email so if you have multiple emails just use them as well. I got 5 from doing that.
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CoSMiC DrMr said 12:02PM on 4-10-2009
Awesome contest, already did my 25 for today. This ought to be fun. Good luck to everyone but i hope that i win. $10,000 is a whole lot of itunes cash, and a new ipod touch and macbook pro. Also a time capsule to go with that macbook pro. This is just crazy. Go APPLE WOOOOO!!!
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Joanna D said 12:15PM on 4-10-2009
If you only enter once you have a one in ~70,000,000 chance of winning the one and only prize.
This isn't worthy of news posts all over the web.
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MJZimmer88 said 1:15PM on 4-10-2009
Yes, but if you enter 25 times a day until they hit a billion (or a million bajillion...) then you will have like a 1575/70,000,000 chance of winning... (0.00225% chance to win)
~1,000,000,000 apps/ ~912 days since inception of app store = ~1.1 Million apps sold per day... therefore there are about 63 days left... times 25 entries a day = 1575 entries
Hurray really rough math!
If you pair up with 45,000 of your closest friends, you may actually have a chance to win!
PodunkPaul said 12:30PM on 4-10-2009
Upon second attempt to enter, was told I had entered too many times today. Leave it to them to screw up a contest!
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tukan said 12:40PM on 4-10-2009
I find it funny that they supposedly allow entries from UK residents, yet the ZIP code field is limited to 5 characters (presumably for US) and inputting any longer string (post codes in UK are usually around 6-7 characters plus space) gives you a MZ finance exception error without a clear explanation what went wrong :)
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Adam said 4:00PM on 4-10-2009
THAT's why I keep getting that!
Sal said 12:47PM on 4-10-2009
How do they do that timer? Ajax?
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Tom said 10:49AM on 4-11-2009
I had a look, they're getting a count when the page loads and then just iterating it in JavaScript... polling the current total with AJAX wouldn't be fast enough.
The interface is pretty well done, it's a film-strip of images that gets repositioned to give the illusion of an animation, there's no movie or Flash going on here.
luxelogic said 1:52PM on 4-10-2009
Regardless of the odds, this campaign is pure genius. I'm playing! (Now, if only the web form would accept more than one submission...)
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Noah said 4:15PM on 4-10-2009
If you read carefully, it says the winner is the first person to buy the billionth app (and/or fill out the form).
Section 5: The prize will be awarded for the entry sent immediately following the download of the 999,999,999th app.
So yeah. Filling out the content form before the 99,999,999th app is sold is pointless.
It's really all about timing :)
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Ryan S. said 6:16PM on 4-10-2009
Re-read it. It says the contest ENDS on the 1,000,000,000th download. You must enter before that to win. It's random draw, actually.
Noah said 6:27PM on 4-10-2009
No, it ends AFTER the 1,000,000,000 is downloaded.
It says the winner is the person who purchased the first app AFTER 999,999,999 is sold.
So if I buy 1,000,000,000, then I win. If we both buy it at the same time, it's a random drawing between you and me, and no one else.
"the prize will be awarded FOR THE ENTRY sent immediately following the download of the 999,999,999th app."
It doesn't say AFTER THE ENTRY... it says FOR the entry. Meaning the 1,000,000,000 app downloaded OR the first person to fill out the form AFTER the 999,999,999th app is downloaded.
Tell me what I'm mis-reading here.
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The prize will be awarded for the entry (either through an app download or through the non-purchase online entry) sent immediately following the download of the 999,999,999th app. The potential winner will be determined by the order of the entries received. In the event that more than one entrant would be a winner based on the simultaneous timing of entries, one entrant will be randomly selected from those entrants as the winner. Each entrant’s chances of winning are dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.
Matt said 9:29PM on 4-11-2009
Noah has it right, as written the winner is the person who downloads the 1 billionth app or submits the 1 billionth form, maybe the wording is wrong and there is a draw between all entries at that point? but as currently written no, the only draw will be between simultaneous entries. Really the "competition" is a sham and in reality its a "reward" to the 1 billionth down-loader much the same as the iTunes one before it, although that at-least had prizes for every 100,000th song, the form really is to satisfy U.S law.
Not only does the person who downloads the billionth item get some goodies, Apple will be creating a scholarship to a world renowned music school in the name of the person who wins. There is a word for that kind of contest, boys and girls, and that word is sweet!
But that's not all, starting at 950,100,000 Apple will be giving away the following for every 100,000th song:
a 4 gig black iPod nano
$100 iTunes Music Store card
No purchase is necessary, you can just fill out a form to enter (limited to 25 a day).
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/02/07/itunes-billion-songs-countdown/