App Store 10 billion download winner hung up on 'prank' Apple call

The winner of Apple's 10 billionth download promotion hung up on the company when they called, thinking it was a prank. Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK, had downloaded Paper Glider, a free iOS game, on Saturday, and with that, won a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

Davis said:

“I thought it was a prank call. I said, ‘Thank you very much, I’m not interested’ and I hung up.”

The call came Eddy Cue, Apple’s Vice-President in charge of iTunes. Her daughter told Davis it wasn't a prank, and she started to panic, but she needn't have: Apple wasn't going to let one hang-up deter them.

"The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a genuine call. The girls were getting quite tense. They never would have forgiven me. They would have held it against me for all eternity.”

Indeed they would not have.  Gail Davis didn't actually make the download.  It was one of her two daughters, 14 and 17, who was the actual winner.  Fortunately for her, Davis was called again a few hours later by one of Cue's colleagues.

Davis and her husband only have iPod nanos, which cannot run iOS apps. They're thinking of upgrading their devices so they can start downloading. She needs to hurry; as she indicated, her daughters are already trying to figure out what to buy.

The App Store reaches the 10 billion download milestone

Apple thanked end users 10 billion times on Saturday, as the 10 billionth app from the App Store was downloaded. While we are not sure who the winner is yet (Apple says come back later), we know that the winner gets a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

The winner didn't actually have to download an app, either. There was a non-download entry form as well. The winner was either the downloader of the 10 billionth app, or the person who submitted an entry form immediately after the 9,999,999,999 app was downloaded.

The number of downloads in the App Store have been skyrocketing, along with device use. By the end of September 2009, the App Store was at 2 billion apps downloaded. About a year ago, in January 2010, there were 3 billion downloads. When the "countdown" began, the store was some 250M apps short, and that was just over a week ago.

In February of 2010, Apple had a different 10 billion download mark hit: the 10 billionth song song from iTunes: Johnny Cash's "Guess Things Happen That Way."

Update: The 10 billionth app downloaded was Paper Glider.  It was purchased by Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK.  Davis will receive a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card.

More than 60 apps downloaded per iOS device: report

We already knew that the countdown to the App Store 10 billionth download has begun. According to market research firm Asymco, that points to more than 60 apps per device, and that's an increase from 10 per device in 2008.

Of course, the App Store launched in 2008, so naturally we'd see a large increase. In fact, Asymco predicts that apps downloaded from the App Store will pass songs downloaded from the iTunes Store by March of 2011. The company made a similar prediction in September of 2010 expecting the event to happen by the end of 2010, which didn't happen, but it will happen, at some time.

After all, although most purchases for iDevice music is made at iTunes, not all are. Meanwhile, with the exception of jailbroken devices, all purchases for apps must be made at the App Store. In addition, apps will have reached 10 billion downloads in less than half the time it took for music from the iTunes Store (31 vs. 67 months).

Since Apple doesn't release numbers all that often, some of this is based on educated guesswork. Asymco estimates that 30 million apps are downloaded daily, but remember that as the number of iDevices increases daily, so do the number of apps. This number will just keep increasing.

Asymco also posits that as iDevice app consumption is increasing at such a high rate, it will soon overtake the PC software market (and based on the context, it sounds like they meant personal computer software, not PC = Windows, as is sometimes meant).

The App Store's 10 billionth download, and a new contest looms

The App Store is about to hit its 10,000,000,000th (that's 10 billion!) download, and though it's still about 200 million away, Apple has updated its website already, and not just to publicize the event, either. No, indeed, you could win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card.

The idea is to be either the 10 billionth app downloader, or the first person to submit a non-purchase entry form (available here) immediately after the 9.999,999,999th download.

It's not the first time Apple has run such a contest. In fact, most of their milestones like this usually have some sort of promotion attached.

You need to be over 13 years of age (or obtain a parent’s or legal guardian’s consent before participating) and you need to be a “legal resident of a participating App Store country” in order to qualify.

Piracy is coming to the Mac App Store, one way or another

The Mac App Store is an attempt by Apple to leverage the reputation and ease of use of the iOS App Store on Mac OS X. However, under certain conditions, applications, or rather, developers, are left wide open to piracy.

The issue appears when applications don't follow Apple's advice on validating App Store receipts. Copy the receipt code from a valid App Store download, including a free one, into a paid app, and if they didn't follow Apple's advice, you now have an app you can freely use.

Interestingly, the example spreading around the Web uses Angry Birds as an example. We would have expected Rovio to be a little more careful. To be clear, some are saying this works on any app, receipt checking or not, an some are saying it only works on Angry Birds.

Still others are saying Apple's instructions on receipt checking are to blamed. CraftyMind has instructions on how to fix the problem.

Even if the receipt checking hole is closed, whether by fixed instructions, or perhaps by making receipt checking a requirement for inclusion in the Mac App Store, that's just the tip of the iceberg. However, there's another threat looming, and one that's more likely to be longer lasting. Hackulous, the group that cracked iOS DRM, thus making many iOS apps piratable for those with jailbroken devices, has already cracked the Mac App Store's DRM.

The group has developed an app called Kickback that allows any app to be cracked. However, they won't release Kickback until February. As they said:

We don't want to release kickback as soon as the [Mac App] Store gets released. I have a few reasons for that.

Most of the applications that go on the Mac App Store [in the first instance] will be decent, they'll be pretty good. Apple isn't going to put crap on the App Store as soon as it gets released. It'll probably take months for the App Store to actually have a bunch of crappy applications and when we feel that it has a lot of crap in it, we'll probably release Kickback.

So we're not going to release Kickback until well after the store's been established, well after developers have gotten their applications up. We don't want to devalue applications and frustrate developers.

Confused? The reason for Kickback is that, just as in the App Store, there's no trial ability in the Mac App Store. Hackulous claims this is the reason behind both of their cracks, as evidenced by their wanting to have a decent amount of crap reach the Mac App Store before releasing Kickback.

And, unlike iOS, there's no way for Apple to require Mac OS X users to only get apps through the Mac App Store. Realistically, they could, but after all this time with an open market, they would just be shooting themselves in the foot.

To be clear, there is a "Try Before You Buy" section in the iOS App Store, but that only highlights trial and lite versions, not a true trial program, as exists in the Android Market. Of course, the Android Market was recently revamped to reduce that trial and refund period from one day to 15 minutes.

Mac OS 10.6.6 and the Mac App Store go live

Apple has opened the Mac App Store for businees. In order to get the functionality, users have to update to the latest version of Snow Leopard, 10.6.6.

Unlike the App Store on iOS, Mac OS X users are not required to get thrir applications through the App Store. Realistically, an end user probably wouldn't want to get something as huge as, say, Office, through broadband.

The Mac App Store is a familiar experience for iOS users that have using that App Store for years. To buy or download, click on an app, enter the same iTunes password you use for music or app purchases for the iPod or iPhone, and you're basically done, once it downloads and installs.

Just as with the App Store on iOS, Apple takes a cut of the revenue (which is yet another reason that biggies like Microsoft won't appear there). However, it's a great way for smaller vendors to publicize and sell their wares. App categories available include education, games, graphics and design, lifestyle, productivity, utilities, among others.

You can read the full press release below.

Apple’s Mac App Store Opens for Business
CUPERTINO, California—January 6, 2011—Apple® today announced that the Mac® App Store℠ is now open for business with more than 1,000 free and paid apps. The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac, so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, download and install them in just one step. The Mac App Store is available for Snow Leopard® users through Software Update as part of Mac OS® X v10.6.6.

“With more than 1,000 apps, the Mac App Store is off to a great start,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think users are going to love this innovative new way to discover and buy their favorite apps.”

The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews.

Entirely new apps, as well as current Mac favorites, are available from developers such as Autodesk, Ancestry.com and Boinx. iPhoto®, iMovie® and GarageBand® apps from Apple’s popular iLife® ‘11 suite are available individually in the Mac App Store for $14.99 each, and Pages®, Keynote® and Numbers® apps from iWork® are available for $19.99 each. Aperture® 3, Apple’s powerful photo editing and management software, is available for $79.99.

“We’re delighted to bring our professional-grade paint and drawing app, Autodesk SketchBook Pro, to the Mac App Store on its first day of launch,” said Carl Bass, Autodesk’s CEO. “We’ve seen tremendous success on the Mac, iPhone and iPad with multiple apps. We’re excited to offer SketchBook Pro on the Mac App Store so artists can easily create everything from quick sketches to high-quality artwork right on their Macs.”

“By offering the Ancestry.com Family Tree Maker app on the Mac App Store, we’re making it even easier for people to discover and access their family history,” said Tim Sullivan, Ancestry.com’s CEO. “The Mac App Store will drive a new generation of innovation on the Mac platform.”

“We’re thrilled to have our award-winning animation, video production and photography software available on the new Mac App Store,” said Oliver Breidenbach, Boinx Software’s CEO. “The Mac App Store makes it easier than ever for consumers to access all the innovative software designed for the Mac.”

To get the Mac App Store, download the Mac OS X v10.6.6 Software Update or visit www.apple.com/mac/app-store. To find out more about developing for the Mac App Store visit developer.apple.com/programs/mac.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

'Roll Your Own': iOS app teaches how to roll your own joints

Steve Jobs is quite vehement about the Android Market where you go for porn, but if you want to learn how to roll a doobie, it's the App Store all the way.

Recently released to the App Store is the Roll Your Own app. It is true that the developer makes no mention of marijuana in the App Store description, but go to their website and read some of their press release:

Steah announced today the release of Roll Your Own, a free iPhone app that gives tobacco enthusiasts and recreational and medical marijuana smokers a helping hand with comprehensive videos, step-by-step instructions and practical tips on rolling their favorite smokes. [...]

Canton went on to say that, "from a quality of life perspective, this app can be a real boon to those with medical marijuana prescriptions - particularly for people who may be unfamiliar with the methods of using it."

As noted in the press release, it is true that the app can be used by both medical marijuana users and tobacco smokers, as well, so it's not as though Roll Your Own is going to be used by those who wish Proposition 19 had passed, but it's always fun to find Apple in these sorts of situations, given the iron fist surrounding the App Store, and Jobs' comments about Android.

We tried to find a similar app in the Android Market and were successful (!), and it was even free. As far as "Roll Your Own" goes, we'll see if it stays in the App Store once Steve Jobs gets wind of it.