A billion served — almost

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:

  1. Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D ($5.99)
    Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
    — a racing game
  2. Koi Pond ($0.99)
    Koi Pond
    — interact with fish in a pond of water
  3. Enigmo ($3.99)
    Enigmo
    — a puzzle game in which you direct drops of liquid
  4. Bejeweled 2 ($2.99)
    Bejeweled 2
    — the classic game in which you get three or more jewels in a row to make them disappear
  5. iBeer ($1.99)
    iBeer (5 drinks, more gags)
    — a visual gag in which your iPhone appears to contain beer (or mouthwash)
  6. Moto Chaser ($0.99)
    Moto Chaser
    — a racing game
  7. PocketGuitar ($0.99)
    PocketGuitar
    — a virtual guitar
  8. Flick Fishing ($0.99)
    Flick Fishing
    — virtual fishing
  9. Tetris ($4.99)
    TETRIS®
    — the Tetris game
  10. Texas Hold’em ($4.99)
    Texas Hold'em
    — the only iPhone game sold by Apple, this poker game includes great graphics
  11. Super Monkey Ball ($5.99)
    Super Monkey Ball
    — a game in which your monkey rolls through mazes
  12. Pocket God ($0.99)
    Pocket God
    — control the ongoings on your island to either help or hurt your islanders
  13. Cro-Mag Rally ($1.99)
    Cro-Mag Rally
    — a racing game
  14. Ocarina ($0.99)
    Ocarina
    — a virtual flute
  15. Fieldrunners ($2.99)
    Fieldrunners
    — a tower defense game
  16. iFart Mobile ($0.99)
    iFart Mobile - #1 Fart Machine for all ages
    — a productivity app
  17. Touchgrind ($4.99)
    Touchgrind
    — a skateboarding game
  18. iHunt ($0.99)
    iHunt
    — a hunting game
  19. iShoot ($1.99)
    iShoot
    — an aim-and-shoot game
  20. Monopoly Here & Now ($4.99)
    MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition
    — 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:

  1. Facebook
    Facebook
    — nice client for the social messaging giant
  2. Google Earth
    Google Earth
    — 3D version of satellite and aerial images of Earth
  3. Pandora Radio
    Pandora Radio
    — start with a song you like and Pandora will stream you the audio of similar songs
  4. Tap Tap Revenge
    Tap Tap Revenge
    — tap scrolling dots in time with the music
  5. Shazam
    Shazam
    — identify a song by just letting your iPhone listen to it for a few seconds
  6. PAC-MAN Lite
    PAC-MAN Lite
    — the first stage of the classic game
  7. Backgrounds
    Backgrounds
    — thousands of iPhone background images, updated daily
  8. Touch Hockey: FS5
    Touch Hockey: FS5 (FREE)
    — air hockey game
  9. Labyrinth Lite Edition
    Labyrinth Lite Edition
    — the wooden maze, steel ball game you played as a kid
  10. Flashlight
    Flashlight.
    — fill your screen with white
  11. Urbanspoon
    Urbanspoon
    — pick a restaurant with a fun slot machine interface and get reviews
  12. Movies
    Movies
    — see what is playing and more
  13. iBowl
    iBowl
    — a bowling game
  14. Lightsaber Unleashed
    Lightsaber Unleashed
    — admit it, when were a kid you would have done anything to have a lightsaber with you at all times
  15. Sol Free Solitaire
    Sol Free Solitaire
    — Klondike and more
  16. MySpace Mobile
    MySpace Mobile
    — client for the social messaging giant
  17. Virtual Zippo Lighter
    Virtual Zippo® Lighter
    — Freebird!
  18. The Weather Channel
    The Weather Channel®
    — one of the better weather apps
  19. Bubble Wrap
    BubbleWrap
    — pop the virtual bubbles
  20. Remote
    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. 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.

    Reply
  2. 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. 🙂

    Reply

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