Apple Amps Up Promotion for 50 Billion App Milestone
Apple today increased its promotion for the upcoming milestone of 50 billion downloads from the App Store, an event the company is marking with a contest in which the person who downloads the 50 billionth app will receives a $10,000 iTunes Store gift card while the next 50 downloaders will receive $500 gift cards each.

The milestone is now being promoted as the main feature on Apple's front page, with an animated counter being accompanied by a rotating series of iPad mini app photos with associated facts to put the "50 billion" number in perspective:
- "With 50 billion steps, you could walk around the earth more than 800 times." [Solar Walk]
- "With 50 billion bricks, you could build 12 Great Walls of China." [ProCamera HD]
- "Counting to 50 billion would take you 1600 years." [Intro to Math, by Montessorium]
Apple announced the contest one week ago, and the counter stood at slightly over 49.2 billion downloads at the time. With the counter now registering a little over 49.6 billion downloads, it should take just under another week to reach the milestone.
(Thanks, Ben!)
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