Apple Reaches 50 Billion App Downloads, Ohio Man Wins Prize

Tim Cook and Co. better have the champagne flowing over in Cupertino, because Apple has a huge milestone to celebrate. 

The iPhone and iPad maker on Thursday announced that its App Store officially hit the 50 billion app download mark. That figure only includes unique downloads — not re-downloads or updates.  

To commemorate the achievement, Apple handed out a $10,000 App Store gift card to one lucky Ohio man who downloaded the 50 billionth app. Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio downloaded the free social word game Say the Same Thing by Space Inch, LLC to win the grand prize.

"Apple would like to thank our incredible customers and developers for topping 50 billion apps downloaded," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services, said in a statement. "The App Store completely transformed how people use their mobile devices and created a thriving app ecosystem that has paid out over nine billion dollars to developers. We're absolutely floored to cross this milestone in less than five years." 

Given the immense popularity of the App Store today, it's almost hard to recall its humble beginnings. The App Store first opened in July 2008 with just 500 apps. Fast forward to today, and it now offers more than 850,000 apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in 155 countries. Apple said that customers are now downloading more than 800 apps per second, and two billion apps per month.  

Rival tech giant Google isn't far behind when it comes to app downloads. During a keynote at Wednesday's Google I/O developer conference, Hugo Barra, vice president of Android product management, announced that Google Play recently crossed 48 billion app installs. 

Google saw "2.5 billion installs in the last month alone," Barra added. "Even better, over the last four months, this year, we've already paid out more money to Android developers than in all of last year."

Meanwhile, Apple celebrated its last major App Store milestone back in March 2012 when it reached 25 billion downloads. The company awarded Chunli Fu of Qingdao, a city in eastern China, a $10,000 (63,000 yuan) iTunes gift card for being the 25 billionth customer. Fu downloaded  a free version of Disney's physics-based puzzle game "Where's My Water?" to win the prize. 

How would you spend $10,000 at Apple's App Store? Let us know in the comments.