Apple App Store hits 10 billion downloads

Apple has announced that over 10 billion apps have been downloaded over its App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

The 10 billionth app to be downloaded was physics-based game Paper Glider. The downloader, Gail Davies from Kent, was given a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card.

Apple says that there’s now 350,000 apps on the App Store, which (going by official numbers) currently makes it the largest source of apps for smartphone users. But Google’s rival Android Market is catching-up.

In October Google announced that the Android Market had reached 100,000 apps and unofficial statistics from website Androlib now puts that figure at over 250,000.

Meanwhile, Nokia is still refusing to give any numbers on the amount of apps on its Ovi Store, which suggests that the figure isn’t that high, though it has said that around 3 million are being downloaded everyday.