Apple is about to sell its one billionth app, and if you are the lucky person to download app number 1,000,000,000, you will get a $10,000 iTunes gift card, an iPod Touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro. Visit this page on Apple’s website for more information, including the opportunity to enter the contest for free without even downloading an app.
But it is a lot more fun to just download some apps. So what have other people been downloading? Apple has a page on the iTunes store listing the all-time most downloaded apps. The top paid apps of all time are:
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D ($5.99) — a racing game
Koi Pond ($0.99) — interact with fish in a pond of water
Enigmo ($3.99) — a puzzle game in which you direct drops of liquid
Bejeweled 2 ($2.99) — the classic game in which you get three or more jewels in a row to make them disappear
iBeer ($1.99) — a visual gag in which your iPhone appears to contain beer (or mouthwash)
Moto Chaser ($0.99) — a racing game
PocketGuitar ($0.99) — a virtual guitar
Flick Fishing ($0.99) — virtual fishing
Tetris ($4.99) — the Tetris game
Texas Hold’em ($4.99) — the only iPhone game sold by Apple, this poker game includes great graphics
Super Monkey Ball ($5.99) — a game in which your monkey rolls through mazes
Pocket God ($0.99) — control the ongoings on your island to either help or hurt your islanders
Cro-Mag Rally ($1.99) — a racing game
Ocarina ($0.99) — a virtual flute
Fieldrunners ($2.99) — a tower defense game
iFart Mobile ($0.99) — a productivity app
Touchgrind ($4.99) — a skateboarding game
iHunt ($0.99) — a hunting game
iShoot ($1.99) — an aim-and-shoot game
Monopoly Here & Now ($4.99) — a new version of the classic game
Arnold Kim at MacRumors.com has an interesting analysis of how many times some of these top 20 apps have been downloaded and how much money each has made for the developer.
The top free apps of all time are:
Facebook — nice client for the social messaging giant
Google Earth — 3D version of satellite and aerial images of Earth
Pandora Radio — start with a song you like and Pandora will stream you the audio of similar songs
Tap Tap Revenge — tap scrolling dots in time with the music
Shazam — identify a song by just letting your iPhone listen to it for a few seconds
PAC-MAN Lite — the first stage of the classic game
Backgrounds — thousands of iPhone background images, updated daily
Touch Hockey: FS5 — air hockey game
Labyrinth Lite Edition — the wooden maze, steel ball game you played as a kid
Flashlight — fill your screen with white
Urbanspoon — pick a restaurant with a fun slot machine interface and get reviews
Movies — see what is playing and more
iBowl — a bowling game
Lightsaber Unleashed — admit it, when were a kid you would have done anything to have a lightsaber with you at all times
Sol Free Solitaire — Klondike and more
MySpace Mobile — client for the social messaging giant
Virtual Zippo Lighter — Freebird!
The Weather Channel — one of the better weather apps
Bubble Wrap — pop the virtual bubbles
Remote — Apple’s app to remotely control iTunes on your computer or an Apple TV
Download an app, help Apple reach the one billion mark, and maybe you will be the lucky person who brings Apple into the 10 digit download number range.
2 thoughts on “A billion served — almost”
1,000,000,000 iPhone apps is an incredible amount of market penetration in a short period of time.
Sure I’ve downloaded a dozen or more apps and deleted them shortly thereafter, but I do have probably 20 or so that I use with some regularity.
I’m mostly excited to see what kinds of new app functionality comes out with OS 3 this summer.
It hit the 1 billion apps sold mark, or 1 billion apps downloaded mark? There’s a huge difference in my mind. The # of lousy, free apps out there is mind boggling, and people download and discard them numerous times a day. Figured I’d ask for a distinction. 🙂
1,000,000,000 iPhone apps is an incredible amount of market penetration in a short period of time.
Sure I’ve downloaded a dozen or more apps and deleted them shortly thereafter, but I do have probably 20 or so that I use with some regularity.
I’m mostly excited to see what kinds of new app functionality comes out with OS 3 this summer.
It hit the 1 billion apps sold mark, or 1 billion apps downloaded mark? There’s a huge difference in my mind. The # of lousy, free apps out there is mind boggling, and people download and discard them numerous times a day. Figured I’d ask for a distinction. 🙂