App Store passes 25 billion downloads milestone

Apple's App Store has just passed 25 million downloads since launch, with one (as yet unannounced) consumer earning $10,000 in iTunes vouchers in the process.

The milestone was reached on Sunday 4 March, meaning that it took the marketplace 3 years, 7 months, and 23 days to reach the target.

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When the App Store first launched back in the summer of 2008, few could have predicted that it would become such a large and, in many cases, disruptive force in the mobile industry.

The App Store launched alongside the release of the iPhone 3G and 2.0.1 of iOS, with only a handful of apps to choose from.

Now the App Store hosts over 500,000 different apps, making it the most populated distribution platform of all the mobile operating systems.