Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio, hit the app jackpot Tuesday afternoon when he pressed the download button on a word game app called Say the Same Thing and sent Apple over the 50 billion app download mark, winning the $10,000 prize.
Cnet reports earlier this month Apple announced that it was nearing 50 billion iPhone and iPad app downloads since the launch of the store in 2008, and that it would award the person who downloaded that milestone app with a $10,000 gift card for the App Store.
That really big round number is defined this way by Apple: its 50 billion unique downloads, excluding re-downloads and updates.
And that number keeps Apple only just a little bit ahead of a key rival: Google announced Wednesday at its I/O conference that the tally for the Google Play store now stands at 48 billion app installations.
Apple said that its customers have been downloading more than 800 apps per second at a rate of over 2 billion apps per month on the App Store, which opened in July 2008 with 500 apps. That adds up to some serious dollars: Apple also said the app ecosystem enabled by its App Store has led to an overall payout to developers of more than $9 billion.
It took App Store customers 14 months to get from 25 billion downloads to 50 billion.
The App Store offers more than 850,000 apps to iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users worldwide, including more than 350,000 native iPad apps, according to Apple.
The 50 people who downloaded apps right after Ashmore are each set to receive a $500 gift card.
Apple will hold its developer's event on June 10. The company is expected to detail the next versions of its iOS operating system, which is said to be getting a major design overhaul.
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