Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

jrswizzle

macrumors 603
Aug 23, 2012
6,107
129
McKinney, TX
My best guess...it'll take about 13.2 days to reach 50,000,000,000 at the current rate of approximately 695 apps downloaded per second.

When I calculated this it was about 4:05 pm CST, meaning you're best bet is to be downloading apps every second at around 8:53 CST on May 15th.

;)

It really wouldn't be all that difficult to write a computer algorithm that calculated the exact time the ticker on iTunes would reach 50B - of course, that ticker isn't necessarily an accurate representation so who knows!?
 

s!ke

macrumors member
Feb 28, 2012
54
1
is this 50 billion for just the US app store? or all worldwide app stores combined?
 

macman34

macrumors regular
Apr 13, 2013
174
0
I hope there's a price going towards the developers, especially struggling ones that have great apps. Sorta like a fund or something. God knows apple can afford it, and god also knows the devs have made some money for apple over the years as well as propelled them to sell more and more idevices.

edit: ok, got it, it's a gift card. How very generous of them... :rolleyes:
 

gooberwilson

macrumors regular
Jul 21, 2012
124
0
Canada
Anyone else notice that the ticker resets itself every time you refresh the page? So how are we supposed to know how many have actually been downloaded?:confused:
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,558
6,058
My best guess...it'll take about 13.2 days to reach 50,000,000,000 at the current rate of approximately 695 apps downloaded per second.

When I calculated this it was about 4:05 pm CST, meaning you're best bet is to be downloading apps every second at around 8:53 CST on May 15th.

;)

It really wouldn't be all that difficult to write a computer algorithm that calculated the exact time the ticker on iTunes would reach 50B - of course, that ticker isn't necessarily an accurate representation so who knows!?

The ticker keeps going if you lose an Internet connection, meaning that it downloads and stores a rate + a current data point to your computer when the page loads and projects from there on while you're still on the page.

So you just have to find where in memory that rate resides. Unfortunately, I think you'll find that the rate isn't linear enough - particularly with so many people trying to buy at the exact right moment, to accurately predict even the second that the 500 people will win during.

Edit: Actually, I just did it out and found they have about 800 downloads per second. If you know the second of the first winner, you might have a decent chance at being one of the 500 winners.

Edit 2X: Whoops, there's 50 winners, not 500. Your odds were just cut by 90%.
 

Plutonius

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2003
9,032
8,404
New Hampshire, USA
Hahaha...Apple can choose whoever they like to "win"! They don't have to prove anything. I'll guess it will be someone politically correct :rolleyes:

I'll bet you guys and gals it will be someone from the US :D

If Apple is controlling who wins, someone from China will probably win. Apple needs the PR there.
 

inkswamp

macrumors 68030
Jan 26, 2003
2,953
1,278
Anyone know if they count just new downloads or are update downloads included in the potential winners? If updates are counted, then it might be a good strategy to wait until the last 30 seconds or so before the counter hits 50B and then hit the "update all" button on the App Store. :)
 

Robert.Walter

macrumors 68040
Jul 10, 2012
3,083
4,318
need to win -
or I have to check my wife into Candy Crush rehab.

I wish Apple would throw that **** Candy Crush Saga app, and any app doing likewise, out of the App Store for using JavaScript hijacking adware redirects to promote their unwanted appware.
 

illitrate23

macrumors 6502a
Jun 11, 2004
681
270
uk
last time i'm sure there was an independent site that was tracking the number of downloads, and it's numbers were more accurate than that on the apple website.
 

576316

macrumors 601
May 19, 2011
4,056
2,556
Am I right in thinking that $10,000 cannot be used for Apple hardware purchases?
 

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,056
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
$500 gift card? Come on, that's NOTHING! :rolleyes: Maybe it's because I usually spend $9.99+ on a lot of my apps, and I'd only use it to buy Final Draft, Diet Coda, and some of the other really expensive iPad apps I've been holding out on for awhile. $10,000 wouldn't be that hard to spend either. Especially when it includes the Mac App Store.

But maybe that has to do a lot with the fact that I use my devices more for work than play.

Last year or so a family from the UK won I believe. The lady accidentally didn't answer and then they got a call back or something. Her two kids were downloading apps on their iPods. I think they downloaded Tiny Wings?

Anyway, stop trying to game the system. It's open to everyone in the countries that the iTunes Store supports.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.