Apple to Give $10K as App Downloads Approach 50 Billion

Nearly 50 billion apps have been downloaded worldwide. To celebrate,

is giving away a $10,000 App Store gift card.

As of this writing, the counter stands at more than 49.2 billion downloads, indicating that it could only be a matter of days -- or perhaps only a few hours -- before the 50 billionth app has been downloaded. "…We couldn't have done it without you," Apple

on its official website. "So we want to say thanks. Download the 50 billionth app, and you could win a US$10,000 App Store Gift Card. Or download one of the first 50 apps after that, and you could win a US$500 App Store Gift Card. Browse the App Store and download your next favorite app." Consumers don't have to pay for or download a single app to enter the competition, however. They can simply use the

, which can be filled out and submitted 25 times per day. It should be interesting to see how Apple fulfills this part of the deal, because it is hard to imagine that anyone could win the big prize without having the 50 billionth download. This is not the first time Apple has promoted the App Store with a download-inspired giveaway. The iPhone maker did the same thing when the 10 billionth app was downloaded. Apple gleefully hyped the next App Store milestone when the 15 billionth app was downloaded, but the company

give away another gift card. Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK, was the first man to benefit from Apple's generosity. After grabbing a copy of Paper Glider, he learned that he had downloaded the

. Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China also won a $10,000 App Store gift card after

the 25 billionth app, which turned out to be the free edition of Where's My Water? That last giveaway occurred on March 5, 2012. This means that over the last 14 months, Apple sold or gave away

24.2 billion apps, nearly doubling its previous total. Before celebrating the App Store milestones, Apple proudly announced that the 10 billionth iTunes song -- "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash, was purchased by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. In doing so, Sulcer also won a

. German citizen Phillip Lüpke received the same prize when he downloaded "Monkey Drums" (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch, which was the

downloaded on iTunes. While Apple has celebrated other, less memorable milestones for iTunes, the biggest giveaway came when the one billionth song -- "Speed of Sound" by Coldplay -- was downloaded. For his effort (and unbelievable good luck), Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield, Michigan won a 20-inch iMac, 10 iPods (fifth generation) and a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Apple also established a scholarship in his name for the Juilliard School of Music. "I hope that every customer, artist and music company executive takes a moment today to reflect on what we've achieved together during the past three years," Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs said at the time, as quoted in a

. "Over one billion songs have now been legally purchased and downloaded around the globe, representing a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the Internet."