Apple is counting down to 10 billion.

The countdown -- featured as a clock on apple.com -- is to the ten billionth app downloaded on the iPhone app store. The person who downloads the 10 billionth app will be rewarded with a $10,000 gift card to iTunes. If the person is purchasing the app, it is not a problem. If they want to win without purchasing an app, they must pre-register for the contest.

As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 10 billionth app, and you could win a US $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Just visit the App Store, and download what could be your best app yet, it says on Apple's website.

This is not the first time Apple has run such a contest. It gave away a $10,000 iTunes gift card as well as a iPod touch, a MacBook Pro and a Time Capsule to a 13-year-old for downloading the one billionth app back in April of 2009. Last June, the company said it had reached five billion downloads.

At press time, Apple is at 9.77 billion downloads with more than 1,000 apps being downloaded every three seconds, which equates to approximately 28.8 million per day. At that rate, the contest should be completed in approximately eight days.

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