Apple Finally Sells its 50 Billionth App

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has updated its website, Apple.com, to announce that the 50 billionth app has finally been downloaded.

The Cupertino, California-based tech giant unveiled its new app countdown -- and a $10,000 App Store giveaway -- on May 3. At the time, 49.2 billion apps had been downloaded. That means that Apple sold 800 million apps in just 13 days.

At least one app maker tried to capitalize on the achievement by announcing that it would award $100,000 in Apple merchandise and accessories to the person who downloaded the 50 billionth app if that app was Hike.

Hike was not the 50 billionth app downloaded, however -- it was Say the Same Thing, an amusing word game from the band OK Go and the app development studio Space Inch.

Mentor, Ohio resident Brandon Ashmore downloaded the app. He will receive a $10,000 App Store gift card for his effort, which he could use to buy 10,000 of the many $0.99 apps currently available for the iOS platform.

"Apple would like to thank our incredible customers and developers for topping 50 billion apps downloaded," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior VP of Internet Software and Services, said in a company release. "The App Store completely transformed how people use their mobile devices and created a thriving app ecosystem that has paid out over nine billion dollars to developers. We're absolutely floored to cross this milestone in less than five years."

The App Store now contains 850,000 different apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. More than 350,000 of those apps were built specifically for the iPad. Thousands of them are sold in 155 countries worldwide.

Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at 248-636-1322 or louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ