Apple's App Store today reached 50 billion downloads since its inception in 2008, and along with the milestone comes the end of the company's "50 Billion App Countdown" promotion launched thirteen days ago. The winner of the promotion, who is yet to be announced, will be awarded a $10,000 gift card valid for App Store, Mac App Store, or any other iTunes Store content. Fifty additional winners will receive $500 gift cards.
The milestone is being acknowledged on Apple's website with a graphic showing a "Thanks" message written using award-winning iPad app Paper by FiftyThree.
The App Store took nearly 3 years, 8 months to reach 25 billion downloads, with the next 25 billion downloads requiring only about 14.5 months.
With the last 25 billion downloads coming over a period of 14.5 months, Apple's pace is now at over 20 billion downloads per year or over 50 million per day. As tracked by our sister site AppShopper, Apple has approved a total of nearly 1.2 million apps for the App Store since its launch, with nearly 850,000 of them currently available in the store.
Monday November 2, 2026 1:22 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is releasing five new products this Friday, November 6, following pre-orders that opened last week, including its first touchscreen MacBook Pro models.
The following new products will be available from Friday:
iPad mini with OLED display and A20 Pro chip
iMac with M6 chip
14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 chip
14-inch MacBook Pro with OLED touchscreen
16-inch MacBook Pro with OLED...
Monday November 2, 2026 7:27 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple's busiest season isn't over yet. Far from it. With two hardware launch dates still to come in November, plus software updates and new smart home accessories running into December, there's more on the way from Apple before the end of 2026, so be sure to stick around.
Below, we've rounded up what's still coming, along with one date in particular that's worth watching if you're a holiday...
Sunday November 1, 2026 7:27 am PST by Joe Rossignol
After announcing a new iPad mini with an OLED display earlier this month, Apple plans to release new iPad Air, iPad Pro, and entry-level iPad models in the first half of 2027, according to the latest word from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the next iPad Air will also feature an OLED display, while he expects the next iPad Pro to be equipped with a...
Who else was in there at the last minute really gunning for it and downloading apps? I bet their traffic went up in the last 10 minutes!
To be fair, the official rules stated: "Any download counter displayed by Sponsor is for illustrative purposes only. The potential winners will be determined by the order of the entries received." so it's quite possible the winner downloaded their app any time before or after that counter struck 50,000,000,000.
I caought it on 50 billion hahahah :)
[url=http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/a532/jamesjingyi/50000000000_zps522547ef.png]Image (http://s1282.photobucket.com/user/jamesjingyi/media/50000000000_zps522547ef.png.html)[/URL]
