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Man, it would take me years to buy $10,000 worth of content. I have a hard time spending the $100 I have now.
 
End This-please Read

DUDE! All you gotta do is download one free App to be entered to win. Download more (up to 25 a day), and increase your odds proportionally.

Hey -- you might even buy a cheap, used 8Gb iPod touch (1st Gen) on ebay, and find that you really, really like this new revolutionary platform (cue the Android and RIM and WM and Pre fans).

Try it -- I'll bet you'll like it.

Or something like that -- just my opinion.

The Rules
Timing. The Promotion shall run from 12:01 a.m. EDT on April 10, 2009 and ends with the downloading of the 1 billionth app (“Promotion Period”). For purposes of the Promotion, the downloading of the 1 billionth app is considered to be either the downloading of the 1 billionth app from iTunes or the receipt of the non-purchase entry after the download of the 999,999,999th app, whichever comes first.
This is a legal requirement to tell everybody when the contest is over. Nowhere does it say a drawing or the winner will be picked at random!!!

How to Enter. There are three ways to enter the Promotion:
You will automatically be entered into the Promotion by downloading an app from the App Store.
You will automatically be entered into the Promotion by downloading an app from the App Store using your iPhone or iPod touch.
Non-purchase method: Go to www.apple.com/itunes/billion-app-countdown/entryform/, fully complete an online entry, including your name, complete mailing address (P.O. Boxes not acceptable), telephone number, and birth date. Once your online entry is complete, hit the “Submit” button to submit an entry. Entry via this method constitutes one (1) entry into the Promotion.
This is a legal requirement. Giveaways have to have a non-purchase method, or they become a lottery, with some state prohibit. The form is simply your way to play without purchase and make this legal in all states.

Limit: Regardless of which method of entry is used to enter the Promotion, only twenty-five (25) entries per person and/or iTunes account and/or email address, per day will be granted. The use of any automated launching or entry software or any other means that permits the entrant to automatically enter repeatedly or in excess of the entry limitations is prohibited.

This is for when it gets close to 1B. If they find out you entered 100 times on the day 1B downloads are hit, you are disqualified. Same for submitting more than 25 entry forms. I think this is to prevent the whole system crashing as it nears 1B. This will prevent people setting up a program to submit/download 1000 free apps as the time approaches

Sweepstakes. Sponsor is the sole judging organization whose decisions as to the operation of the Sweepstakes and the selection of the potential winner are final and binding in all matters related to the Promotion. 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. The potential winner will be determined by the order of the entries received. In the event that more than one entrant would be a winner based on the simultaneous timing of entries, one entrant will be randomly selected from those entrants as the winner. Each entrant’s chances of winning are dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.

Please read the above bold/red/large/underlined/italicized portion. If it doesn't make sense got back to school or save us (me) the pain and just move on. It is clear:
THE WINNER IS THE PERSON WHO DOWNLOADS THE 1 BILLIONITH APP OR THE PERSON WHO SUBMITS THE FORM AFTER THE 999,999,999 APP WAS DOWNLOADED. NO LUCKY DIP!!! NO RANDOM DRAWING. NO INCREASING YOUR ODDS BY DOWNLOADING?FILLING OUT MORE FORMS. DOWNLOADING AN APP ONLY GETS THE NUMBER CLOSER TO 1B. PLEASE READ!!! IT IS FAIR AS IT IS APPLE'S CONTEST AND THEY ARE GIVING THEIR STUFF AWAY.
 
When I was a boy iy was a really big deal when McDonalds served their billioneth burger. Then all the golden arches has a "over one billion served" sentence. Can the Apple store give away fries in celebration?
 
In case someone in Germany wins the prize, you don't have to pay any taxes. Doesn't matter whether you win € 100M in the lottery or a gift card from Apple, all profits from games of chance are completely taxfree.


Wow! You win the whole amount? That's awesome. If you win the lottery here you get destroyed in taxes. Send me a lottery ticket please!
 
Same

This 1 billion counter is a fake and I can prove it. Change your computer time to around May 20, 2009. You'll see it go over 1 billion.

21b6t8n.jpg


You Try...

I got the same thing only 1,010,082,02. I find it out because the timer on on computer was 3...,... and on my laptop it was 2..,... . I set it to Sunday , April 12 at 14:42pm and got to one billion!
 

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A. It is the person who downloads the next app after 999,999,999 OR the next submission.

B. FREE APPS COUNT

C. The counter is just a placeholder.

/thread?
 
Over Under is 7.5 days

If you look at the number of downloads in the 3:00 hour you find something like 144,000.

The number of downloads/hour has consistantly gone up and last I checked was 278,000 in 1 hour.

This amounts to 77.3/second.

Looking at the counter on the apple website it certainly looks like 77/sec is about right.

Even if you have to be the 1 billionth download to win I still want to help Apple out.

I feel a loyalty to them for building my 2nd gen touch which has exceeded my wildest expectations.

For the greater glory of Apple and to be part of history I will download the 25 most popular free apps from each category, sync the ones I will actually use, delete the rest and keep downloading until I help push them over the top.

Keep this in perspective.

Apps store launches Sep 2008, in 7 months reaches 1 billion downloads:

143 million/month

35.7 million/week

4.8 million/day

198,000/hour

3307/min

55/sec every second for 7 months and the pace of downloads has been steadily increasing.

I think its safe to say Apple will see the next billion in 6 months and perhaps the 3rd billion in 5.

The Touch/Iphone is revolutionizing personal electronics.

It is essentially a tricorder, an electronic swiss army knife.

It is a self sustaining system of advancement.

The more people get the ipod touch/iphone, the more app developers will arrive, creating better and bettter apps.

The more and better apps, the greater the utility of the Touch/Iphone, the more people buy one.

So the cycle spirals upwards.

In August 2010 I will be start attending the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Navy Medical Program, (I will be a Navy Doctor) and I plan to just go with a cell phone as a primary phone instead of a landline.

Once guess as to which Phone I will choose.

Kudos Apple, for creating such a system and such a fine product. I look forward to my 64 GB 4th gen Iphone and the incredible wonders it will be able to accomplish.
 
OK, so I'm not a Google Spreadsheets zen master. But here's a rough sheet that calculates the hourly trend based on the last fetched data from http://www.apple.com//autopush/us/itunes/includes/countdown.txt .

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=peSvgz_rUARx-RxxRCyqsVw

Here's the data I've got so far (missed one hour you didn't have):

10-APR-2009 23:00:00|932589673|206564
11-APR-2009 00:00:00|932766515|176842
11-APR-2009 01:00:00|932927615|161100
11-APR-2009 02:00:00|933077988|150373
(I'll update this post to add other bits of info)
 
[LOTS OF RED TEXT]

Thank you for pointing this out. This is not a drawing. The winner will be the person who downloads app #1 billion (or submits an entry form at the correct time). I don't know why they're saying "Limit 25 per day", seeing as it doesn't really matter.
 
Hourly Downloads

Here's a quick look at the hourly download rate! I feel like such a geek.

P.S. Time is in GMT
 

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One thing intrigues me: do application updates count? Because they are downloads, right? Apple is counting all downloads, not purchases… no?
 
Here's my theory,

I updated the link http://www.apple.com//autopush/us/itunes/includes/countdown.txt
at about 1:40PM (my time, I live in Lebanon) which equals 3:40AM on CA's time. and it displayed: "11-APR-2009 04:00:00|933364065|142484"

so, I think that they update it 30 mins before the actual time displayed on the link... and it actually sets the countdown on the website to go with those numbers... I waited for the clock to strike 2PM at my time so 4AM CA's time and I took a screenshot at the exact time and it was at exactly 933,364,065 downloads!

so, if I set my computer's clock to some date later on this month, the countdown will utilize the current info that is provided on http://www.apple.com//autopush/us/itunes/includes/countdown.txt , so that date can change every time they change the number of downloads per hour that is displayed in the third slot on the link...

I don't know about you all but I'm not gonna bother download a lot in the meanwhile... because they just want us to get eager over it and reach the 1B mark very fast.... im just gonna start downloadin' 25 apps a day after it reaches 999,000,000.....

P.S. I'm on a Cyber Cafe Computer, that's why the screenshot was shot in a Windows OS... I have a MacBook! but the connection back at home was down.... :(
 

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I got the same thing only 1,010,082,02. I find it out because the timer on on computer was 3...,... and on my laptop it was 2..,... . I set it to Sunday , April 12 at 14:42pm and got to one billion!

Loo at apple's homegage in the bottom right corner, the tickets is there and the last number doesn't dissappear after 1 billion
 
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