We all know that Apple is closing in on a billion app downloads in the App Store. Currently, the counter on the main Apple.com claims it’s about 10 million away from the major number. But, Apple apparently already knows when the billion mark is going to be passed, because the billion celebration page is ready to go and can easily be accessed, right now.
And we know the exact time Apple is predicting when it will cross the mark — at least, right now (more below): 1:24:06 AM PST on April 23. Simply go to your system settings and set the date and time to anytime after that mark, and reload the main Apple page. You’ll be greeted by big picture on the landing page reading, “Thanks a billion. Over a billion downloads in just nine months. Only on the App Store.”
And actually, if you change to a before the mark Apple has set, you can see the counter advance closer and closer towards the billion mark.
Of course, this means that the number is at least somewhat tied (update below) to your computer’s clock rather than an actual billion app sales mark being triggered. Not that it’s all that surprising. After all, with so many apps being sold every second, can you really expect Apple to do anything other than estimate? This would be an issue though if said it was giving away a prize to the person who specifically downloaded the billionth app (it’s not).
Update: It looks like Apple is constantly tweaking the exact timing based on the following text file, as commenter Robert notes below. As of right now, the rate of Apps being sold appears to be slowing down, pushing the time out a bit.
noone cares
I double that! Who gives a rat’s ass?
Lots of people care – specifically, those who invested time and money. Not to mention the people who put apps up.
But I suppose cynicism is easier.
We want MS windows app store, yes, i’m not talking about windows mobile.
Lots of people do care!!! People who download apps, people who make apps and people who put them up/market through them.
1 billion apps….I am not surprised….Apple iPhone is by far the most revolutionary piece of technology in recent times….. if somebody thinks 1 billion download is not a big deal, it is very likely he/she has lost its mind.
http://www.livbit.com
There is an app for that
back into the future! if I change the date to august ninth for instance – will I get to see how the new iPhone looks like ?
you should try.
I’m going to change the system date to 2015 and see if we are all travelling around via hoverboards and flying cars!
You would think it would change automatically based on downloads…. not date.
No you wouldn’t.
It’s called design planning… Remember that the page needs to be designed in many, many languages and posted all around the world at the same time. So based on downloads, not really. More like let’s predict the downloads, design the page, make sure that it appears online when we need it to and get on with other design work that’s queuing up.
It’s a job, you see!
Seems like someone has a lot of free time on their hands, or got a really good tip
or both
What? No conspiracy theory? Like for example, maybe the number is completely guestimated even now and their current algorithm will hit 1 Billion at that time regardless of actual download numbers?
Sounds like a safe bet to me, since it will most likely be VERY close to that time… and semi-unverifiable given that they can probably set all the actual metrics however they want until the real numbers support their claims.
Goooo Apple!
… or maybe the gilded consumerist drones Apple gets all their money from are just that predictable…
And I’m an idiot for not reading the whole post before commenting. Someone hurt me. Ignore my previous post.
The designer in me likes the early taste of the landing page, and the consumerist drone (:P) in me will continue purchasing apps from Apple long after they hit a billion. It will be interesting to see if they change anything since they got scooped.
WTF did you just even say???
No it’s not. It’s actually being continually adjusted based on this feed that Apple is pulling into the page via a xhr:
http://www.appl...s/countdown.txt
It’s the middle number (pipe delimited) that you care about. Seems like they can update that based on latest trends right away.
Interesting. I’ll check that out, thanks.
Good call, it’s definitely being tweaked still, I’ll update.
4chan YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING WITH THIS FILE!!!
Great “story”, guys.
Everyone should stop buying apps and see what happens if they never reach a billion apps sold. 4chan?
The Official Rules say:
“The prize will be awarded for the entry (either through an app download or through the non-purchase online entry) sent immediately following the download of the 999,999,999th app.”
I read the above as Apple giving the prize to the person who downloads the 1 billionth app (or enters online).
Am I missing something?
Yeah, anyone after April 10 is eligible. That’s just when it will be awarded.
Thats precisely how I too got it. Is that not correct?
Pretty incredible..says a ton about the mobile app industry. It’s just beginning. Hitting a billion downloads w/ approximately 1% market share WW. Just think about the industry as the iPhone grows share, and OEMs become better at packaging the experience.
Doesn’t the storage counter on Gmail’s homepage also use some kind of time-based math?
But there’s only 6.5 Billion people on the planet… that doesnt add up! Somebody is doing some funny counting or using a crazy american “billion” value that requires less 0’s!!!
?
I think he is trying to get at the problem of what is the true definition of “billion”
USA = one thousand, million (1,000,000,000)
Old English term = one million, million (1,000,000,000,000)
What???? 1 billion is 1,000,000,000 anywhere you go in the world….. Let me guess, ur American right mike?
I second that.
The number 1.000.000.000 is called one milliard in the Nordic languages. One billion means 1.000.000.000.000.
It seems our billions are a thousand times bigger than the Americans. Maybe they just wanted more billionaires?
Shaggy? Ruh roh
If 10 million users bought or downloaded 100 apps each, you got 1 billion apps. Remember, Iphone apps work on the Ipod Touch, too. So, you got x million Iphone users and y million Touch users, all buying paid or downloading free apps, it’s very easy to get 1 billion when you think about it. I got over 85 apps on my Touch. Then, when you consider that alot of users buy or download apps, then get rid of them, buy and download other competing apps, it all adds up very quickly. 1 Billion is very easy when you got both a Ipod and Iphone to count.
this milestone signifies what? that apple is taking more and more of our money. what does apple do with all their billions of billions of dollars of cash besides store it up for themselves? do they ever give back like Microsoft? hardly.
oh, so THAT’S how Gates made his billions. And operating on 95% of all computers in the world makes it pretty easy (aka obligates) one to be charitable, less look like a money-hungry monopoly.
how can be they so precise …..?
I doubt MG will ever see this comment but…I freaked out when I saw the title of this post. Then I realized it meant “billion downloads” and not “billion apps.”
I mean, how many more Fart apps does one need?
I see it and yes, sorry for the confusion, didn’t mean to scare you with fart app overload.
iPhone sucks. Period.
awww you didn’t get invited to the party. boo hoo.
yippee-ay-Ay, yippee YO
No dought that apple app is good software and it really appreciated that now it going to reach upto billion
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I really love the counter. A large image and a little bit Javascript. Wow.
Very interesting article from WorldTV on how to win the prize: http://bit.ly/WWLjh
Excerpt from the link:
“Apple’s 1 billion app counter is not actually a live counter but a rough approximation. You can see this in the way it always seems to update at a constant rate. True counters don’t work like this – they come in fits and spurts.
The counter is actually simple javascript which reads a text file upon loading. The text file contains two numbers… the total number of apps downloaded at the top of the last hour and the number of apps downloaded in the preceeding 60 mins. This text file is updated every hour.”
Nobody cares! Nobody cares! Nobody cares! Nobody cares! Nobody cares! ….
MG, you have written about the billion downloads no story so many times it makes one wonder exactly how much money is Apple paying you?
One billion? Holy Wow! That’s actually pretty impressive although I have to say that I think I’m responsible for at least a million of those
Appel good softwares make it. I hate to say like it. Thanks you too much. I download fart software last month. It fart too good. Tasty.
- a freinds from Albania.
No matter how you look at it 1 Billion is a lot of apps, Apple should be recognised for the App store it’s potentially up with the Ipod in terms of game changing.
Matt
Wait…. do you have to get an app from an iphone or an itouch in order to win the award? and when did/do you have get an app from the app store? B/c i have not downloaded an app for like a month or 2.
also do you have to buy the app or could it have been a free app?
Question…
If I enter in all my same data for winning the prize, will I be disqualified or will i just have a better chance to win?
What, the geniuses at TechCrunch didn’t notice this the first time it was posted? Everyone mentioned it in the comments. Nice to know you guys pay attention to what your readers are saying. /s
1 billion for the autorities, 0.5 for the demonstrators ….. lol
TechCrunch article quality is diminishing. No offence to the authors of TechCrunch I’m sure you have been told to punt out as many articles as possible, but what happened to the good old days of TechCrunch when it was about actual news?
I really enjoy TC but when I click though to articles like this it makes me wonder what is going on! All the bloggers at TC are fantastic writers but no matter how hard you try you cannot polish a turd.
I don’t give a r…a.. about this
Hey guys, thanks for pointing out the reason for the strange anomalies. A commenter (Greg) on iPTIB (http://weblogs....e.html#comments) has pointed out the discrepancy between numbers depending on what device you use for viewing the App count. It’s all just more fun, I think. At iPTIB they’re even having a bit of fun with their own challenge for a screengrab of the closest to the billion mark…
It’s from Apple …….. It’s a LIE!
Coincidence that the billionth download apparently happened almost exactly 12 hours later than you predicted?
From the text file used by Apple’s countdown javascript…
23-APR-2009 13:00:00|999801691|328836
23-APR-2009 14:00:00|1000299497|497806
The first number is the total number of downloads. The second is the number of downloads in the last hour. Assuming a constant download rate, the billionth download happened at about 1:23:54 PM.
I wonder how many of the nearly 500,000 downloads between 1pm and 2pm happened just before the countdown clock reached a billion… which would have been far too late since the countdown clock counted down based on the rate of downloads from 1-2 hours prior. Since 11am-12pm was 281,880 the count down rate was nearly twice as slow as actual.
Okay, I’m a dork.