March 5, 2012: Apple reaches a staggering milestone, with 25 billion apps downloaded from the iOS App Retailer. The corporate celebrates with a giveaway titled the “25 Billion App Countdown.”
The fortunate 25 billionth app downloader wins an iTunes reward card value $10,000.
Apple’s 25 Billion App Countdown
Simply 4 years after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs relented and opened the iPhone’s App Store, the genius of permitting third-party builders to create iOS apps was simple. Hitting the 25 billion downloads landmark in such a short while showcased simply how good — and profitable — the transfer was.
Builders dreamed up apps that made the iPhone extra helpful and enjoyable. Apps that grew to become hits made devs wealthy, and Apple took a lower of the gross sales. The App Retailer grew to become a significant revenue heart for Apple.
“We’d prefer to thank our clients and builders for serving to us obtain this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded,” says Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vp of web software program and providers, in an announcement. “After we launched the App Store lower than 4 years in the past, we by no means imagined that cell apps would change into the phenomenon they’ve, or that builders would create such an unbelievable number of apps for iOS customers.”
On the time, the App Retailer provided greater than 550,000 apps for obtain. Apple had doled out greater than $4 billion to builders for his or her 70% share of income from paid downloads.
The winner of the reward card in Apple’s 25 Billion App Countdown is Chunli Fu from China. The app is Disney’s Where’s My Water?, a free puzzle recreation launched the earlier September.
App Retailer continues to develop
By comparability, immediately the App Retailer peddles nearly 2 million apps, and clocks greater than 100 billion downloads a yr. The App Retailer’s attain and affect proceed to develop, though Apple’s administration of the shop faces rising scrutiny from worldwide antitrust regulators.
“Apps and video games have change into the important supply for the world’s most modern and well timed leisure,” Apple mentioned in a 2022 press launch. “The efforts, innovation, and creativity of the builders who leverage Apple know-how to construct these unbelievable experiences, coupled with the facility of the App Retailer’s international platform to attach companies of all sizes with over 600 million folks every week throughout 175 international locations, has led to builders promoting digital items and providers incomes more than $260 billion since the App Store launched in 2008.”
Apple frequently touts the advantages of the App Retailer to each shoppers and third-party builders. Nevertheless, the corporate’s strict management over the app market and the general iOS ecosystem have landed Apple in scorching water. Adjustments coming quickly in iOS 17.4 will open the iPhone to sideloading and third-party app stores within the European Union. And Apple faces a $1.8 billion fine for its allegedly abusive remedy of streaming music rival Spotify.
Apple beloved the milestones
Only a few years in the past, Apple appreciated celebrating milestone occasions with promotions just like the 25 Billion App Countdown. In actual fact, a 2004 contest to mark 100 million iTunes song downloads made the 2012 app obtain contest look meager.
The winner of the 2004 contest obtained a private telephone name from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod and a present certificates for 10,000 iTunes songs.
Lately, Apple largely avoids making a giant deal of those sorts of landmark occasions. When Apple handed the 1 billionth iPhone milestone, the corporate did little to commemorate the event. The identical held true when Apple’s market cap surpassed the $1 trillion valuation. And $2 trillion. And $3 trillion.
Equally, Apple avoids sharing too many particulars in regards to the utilization of providers like Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and Apple Health+. The corporate additionally stopped revealing the variety of iPhones offered every quarter.
Whereas I perceive the logic behind this less-bombastic technique, I miss the joy of such old-school Apple occasions. It was enjoyable when Apple eagerly (and publicly) counted right down to its subsequent gigantic gross sales document with occasions just like the 25 Billion App Countdown.
