The iOS App Store has just hit the 25 billion download mark. The milestone was confirmed by Apple, who'd been running a promotion in anticipation of the landmark.
As per official rules of the promotion, the person who downloaded the 25 billionth app will receive an App Store Gift Card of USD 10,000 or equivalent, redeemable in the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBook Store, as available in the country in which the winner is located. The identity of the winner is not known yet.
Apple had run similar promotions in the past to celebrate one and ten billion App Store downloads and others when the iTunes Music Store hit the hundred million and ten billion song mark.
The growth in the download rate for the App Store is just staggering. It was 12 December 2011 when Apple last released the total downloads count and it
stood at 18 million. That means that the App Store has seen around 7 billion downloads in less than 3 months!
The number was no doubt helped by a strong holiday season for Apple. Apple solid 37.04 million iPhones and 15.43 million iPads (not to forget the iPod Touch sales, the number of which are never revealed) in the 14-week period ending on December 31, 2011. All the new devices waiting to be filled with apps definitely helped clock the magic number this fast.