Apple counts down to 25 billion downloads - Updated

Apple has started counting down to the 25 billionth download from its app store, posting a ticker on its website to track the progress and offering a US$10,000 app store gift card to the lucky downloader who takes them past the milestone.

Even non-users have a chance, with Apple also offering an alternate entry form for folks who want to be part of the fun without making a purchase or download.

Apple’s 10 billionth app was downloaded in January last year, and its 15 billionth in July, meaning the number of daily downloads has more than doubled in the last 12 months.

Apple’s iOS had been activated on more than 250 million devices at October last year, and the company has sold well over 37 million iPhones since then. That still means we’re looking at an average of close to 100 app downloads per device.

How many apps do you think you’ve downloaded? Post your comments below, or go here to check the ticker's progress. 

Update: TechDay staff have estimated that at the current rate, it will take about 11 days for the ticker to cross over to 25 billion.

Dividing the number of apps still to go by the rate at which the 'thousand' ticker is ticking per minute, we've calculated that the ticker will hit 25 billion in 16,827 minutes, which is 280.45 hours or 11.7 days. That works out to around March 2, in the evening.

Of course, this estimate was made in the middle of the day in New Zealand, with much of the world asleep;chances are the ticker will move much faster at night. If you think you can make a better guess, post it below!