Download the billionth App Store app, win $10,000 iTunes voucher

Apple is approaching the 1 billion mark for applications downloaded from the App Store, and plans to deposit a pile of its shiny gear on the lucky billionth customer -- including a $10,000 voucher for iTunes.

The company published a countdown on Friday as it gets closer to the mark: at time of publication, about 950 million applications have been downloaded from the App Store since it went live last July, according to the counter. Whoever manages to download the 1 billionth application will walk away with a hefty satchel of prizes: a MacBook Pro, a 32GB iPod touch, a Time Capsule and a $10,000 (£6,700) iTunes gift certificate.

Somewhere north of 30,000 applications have made their way on to the App Store to fuel those 1 billion downloads. Along with the promotion, Apple released some stats on the top downloads in both the paid and free categories: Facebook has been downloaded the most times among the free applications, while Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D has received the most downloads among paid apps.