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Apple begins counting down to 25 billion App Store downloads

Apple on Friday added a counter to its website, leading up to the milestone of 25 billion downloads from the iOS App Store by offering a chance at a $10,000 gift card.

As of Friday afternoon, the countdown is at 24.29 billion but is quickly growing. The person who downloads the 25 billionth application from the App Store has a shot at a $10,000 gift card.

A year ago, Apple instituted a similar countdown to the 10 billion mark. That was also tied to a contest for a $10,000 App Store Gift Card.

The 10 billion download mark was reached on January 22 of 2011. That means that the number of downloads on the App Store have more than doubled in little over a year.

Downloads from the App Store have continued to grow at an exponential rate since the digital storefront first launched in 2008. In its first year, the App Store reached 1.5 billion downloads, but by January of 2010, total App Store downloads had topped 3 billion.

Revenue from the App Store has grown as well, as Apple revealed in January that it has paid more than $4 billion to developers. For comparison, over $1 billion was paid to developers by June of 2010.