$10,000 iTunes Gift Card Goes to a Lucky Apple Customer

A lucky Apple user in Qingdao, China just received a $10,000 prize for downloading the 25 billionth Apple app from the App Store. In eastern China Chunli Fu unsuspectingly downloaded a free version of the Disney puzzle game, “Where’s My Water?” On Monday, March 5 Apple announced that Fu had won the $10,000 iTunes gift card.

"We'd like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded," said Eddy Cue, the senior vice president of Internet Software and Services at Apple, in a statement. "When we launched the App Store less than four years ago, we never imagined that mobile apps would become the phenomenon they have, or that developers would create such an incredible selection of apps for iOS users."

Over the weekend Apple announced that the 25 billionth app download milestone had been reached; however, it did not reveal who the winner was.

Instead, the App Store had an announcement posted on its website, “A billion thanks. 25 times over."

In January 2011 Apple gave a $10,000 iTunes gift card to Gail Davis, the 10 billionth customer at the Apple App Store, who was living in Orpington, Kent, U.K. Davis won the gift card downloading Paper Glider, a paper airplane flying game.

"Whilst app downloads of Paper Glider might not have experienced a huge shift after Apple's announcement, [Neon Play Managing Director Oli Christie] could not have imagined the response from the media and from potential clients," wrote The Next Web's Matt Brian. "Within two days of the announcement, Neon Play received numerous inquiries from digital marketing agencies and has already undertaken at least three projects as a result."

Apple launched the App Store in 2007. According to Apple, the app store now offers more than 550,000 apps for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. It also features more than 170,000 iPad apps as well.

Sources: Apple - Apple’s App Store Downloads Top 25 Billion and PCMag - Apple's 25 Billionth App Downloaded in China

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iPhone on Other Networks Within a Year?

Everyone who owns an iPhone knows that having the phone means being stuck with AT&T as your carrier. As a matter of fact, many iPhone owners, while thrilled with their actual phone, often list having to use AT&T as one of their main issues. But in a new report, Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Gene Munster takes on the issue and even suggests that by summer 2010, Apple will add new carriers in the United States.

The report, a note to investors, took on fourteen "unanswered questions." In it, Munster talked about how Apple went from a single carrier to a multi-carrier model in France, suggesting it had a direct relationship with an increase in market shares,

"For various reasons the company moved from an exclusive relationship with French wireless carrier Orange to a multi-carrier model. In France, the company now enjoys dramatically higher market share (in the 40 percent range vs. about 15 percent in ROW) than in countries with exclusive carrier agreements (such as AT&T in the U.S. where the iPhone has market share in the mid-teens). We believe Apple is seeing the increased unit sell-through more than offset the slightly (- 10 percent) deteriorated economics per unit involved in non-exclusive agreements."

There have been many rumors about where Apple will turn, should it abandon its exclusivity with AT&T. Verizon president Denny Strigle has been speaking favorably of the iPhone and rumor has it Verizon is working to launch a new 4G network by early 2010. AT&T is also supposedly trying to negotiate with Apple, hoping the company will keep them as the exclusive iPhone carrier until 2011.

In the report, Munster also mentioned how unhappy Apple is with video and the iTunes store and suggests the company will eventually offer a monthly subscription of about $30-40 that allows users to have unlimited access to cable and network television content.