Paper Glider successfully marked as 10 billionth App Store download
by Steven Mostyn - Jan 24 2011, 13:08
Swiping its way into App Store history. Image: Neon Play.
A British woman has this week taken Apple’s App Store beyond yet another significant landmark after she secured the online service’s 10 billionth software download.
Officially achieved on the evening of January 22, the App Store’s latest download-related record was set when Gail Davis of Orpington in Kent popped online to grab Paper Glider for her daughter’s iPhone.
To mark the 10 billionth download, Apple duly called the lucky winner directly to inform her of the achievement and present her with a congratulatory iTunes gift voucher worth $10,000 USD.
“I had no idea, when Apple called me,” she revealed in a BBC report. “I thought it was a prank call and I declined to take it.”
Luckily, Apple persisted in its attempts and eventually got through, before reassuring the stunned recipient that “it’s not a joke… you are the winner [of the ‘Countdown to 10 Billion Apps’ competition].”
According to Apple, its march to 10 billion App Store downloads has required just two-and-a-half years of service, with around seven billion of that total coming within the last 12 months.
The App Store, which is accessed via iTunes, boasts some 350,000 downloadable apps and is presently the world’s leading destination for free and fee-based software applications developed for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
Paper Glider, which is a free-to-download application developed by UK-based studio Neon Play (Fat Santa), tasks players to simply swipe a finger across the touchscreen in order to guide a paper airplane through a selection of challenging environments.
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