The App Store hits one billion downloads!
Shortly before 2 p.m. PDT (1:52 p.m.), the iTunes App Store hit 1,000,000,000 apps sold since it originally just nine months ago. It's by no means perfect, but it's still a significant milestone for the store, the iPhone (and iPod touch) and Apple. It didn't come without its glitches. The iTunes Store was showing up as unavailable for several people off and on throughout the afternoon. Even Apple itself jumped the gun a little bit by having its after 1 billion page already available early Thursday, in addition to the counter in iTunes showing the 1 billion mark before the official counter on Apple's website.
Get a WordPress.com Blog
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Michael Jones said 4:57PM on 4-23-2009
Almost makes you wonder how accurate the counter is...
Reply
billcantfart said 5:15PM on 4-23-2009
It wasn't a counter, it was a timer. If you changed your system time to a day or two earlier, Apple's homepage would lose a few thousand numbers. If you skipped ahead to the 24th, it would show the "Thanks a billion" thing.
paperless said 6:00PM on 4-23-2009
No it was not a timer.
http://www.apple.com/autopush/us/itunes/includes/countdown.txt
That text file was updated every hour and it was fetched by the javascript. If you advanced the clock it would increase in the same rate instead of chaning the rate every hour.
paperless said 6:02PM on 4-23-2009
23-APR-2009 13:00:00|999801691|328836
And now it is:
23-APR-2009 14:00:00|1000299497|497806
Coard Miller said 5:00PM on 4-23-2009
I downloaded 30 apps in 5 minutes. I was just hoping to get the shot at the billionth.
Reply
Jason said 5:03PM on 4-23-2009
lol to bad you can only have 25 entries per day
Joseph said 5:35PM on 4-23-2009
Too bad he was rounding up and really only downloaded 25. Where's your cynicism now?
Jason said 6:39PM on 4-23-2009
um no I think he clearly stated that he downloaded "30" apps in a 5 minute time span!
Coard Miller said 7:26PM on 4-23-2009
ok. seriously. i didn't count them. it was a figure of speech to say i downloaded a ton.
Benji Barash said 5:06PM on 4-23-2009
I got a pretty close screenshot:
http://www.twitpic.com/3unet
:D
Reply
Ralph said 5:11PM on 4-23-2009
Here's hoping it wasn't "Baby Shaker" or "iFart".
Reply
ThisIsGoodNews said 5:15PM on 4-23-2009
This is great. Let's get it to the front page of Digg: http://digg.com/apple/The_App_Store_hits_one_billion_downloads
Reply
oliver hart said 5:15PM on 4-23-2009
cause i got a golden ticket..
Reply
zxspectrum said 5:20PM on 4-23-2009
http://www.flickr.com/photos/looksmart/3469472890/
999,999,990!
Reply
Catatonic said 5:23PM on 4-23-2009
No one in the press ever asked Apple to address the confusion in the contest rules.
"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."
So what was the point of using the no-purchase-required entry form 25 times a day?
Reply
Duncan said 5:34PM on 4-23-2009
There wasn't one, that was part of the point. The only way that at all matters is if the winner they call/email who did get the billionth app dosent get in contact with them, then there will be a drawing of all those who entered.
John said 9:55PM on 4-23-2009
I think what that means is that the entry submitted following the download of the 999,999,999th app is what officially ends the contest. There is other conflicting information in the official rules that would not necessarily declare the person who downloaded the billionth app the winner of the contest.
"For purposes of the Promotion, the downloading of the 1 billionth app is considered to be either the downloading of the 1 billionth app from iTunes or the receipt of the non-purchase entry after the download of the 999,999,999th app, whichever comes first. Only entries submitted in this time period will be accepted."
Not sure why they (Apple) would have people go to the trouble of submitting millions of entries upon entries in that time period all for nothing (if what you said is in fact the way it was intended to be read).
But that's just the way I interpreted it... maybe I'm wrong.
VanillaSpice said 11:23PM on 4-23-2009
There was no confusion, really.
The competition went "live" when the 999,999,999th app was downloaded.
The winner would then be the next person to either a) download an app, or b) use the no-purchase-necessary form.
There was "no point" in using the no-purchase-necessary form (and hoping to win) when the counter was in the 996,000,000-999,000,000 range in precisely the same way that there was no point downloading an app (and hoping to win) during the same period.
cozartdono000 said 5:44PM on 4-23-2009
I hope I won.
I think somewhere in the legal jargon it mentions that if you sent in your online entry as the 1 billionth app was being downloaded, you're considered part of the whole tie breaking progress.
I could also be a crazy person.
Reply
Zach said 7:23PM on 4-23-2009
You know it was weird I was watching it and before it was actually at the 1 billionth mark it showed the whole "Thanks a billion" screen... I actually captured the phenomenon on vid: here it is.
http://files.me.com/isaacandneena/dl17dc.mov
Reply