Apple's App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch opened its virtual doors five years ago and the company is celebrating the event with a special iTunes Store page highlighting popular apps and App Store milestones. As The Mac Observer noted yesterday, before the celebration started, Apple is offering several popular iOS apps and games for free.
Apple celebrates the App Store's five year anniversary
The App Store launched with only 500 apps on July 10, 2008 and hit the 10 million app download mark in just four days. Apple hit the 1 billion download mark on April 4, 2009, and by June 7, 2010, downloads hit 5 billion.
On January 22, 2011, App Store downloads topped 10 billion, and on March 5, 2012, downloads hit 25 billion. Apple doubled its App Store downloads on May 16, 2013, when it announced iOS device users had downloaded more than 50 billion apps.
The free apps Apple is offering as part of its fifth anniversary will go back to their regular prices in a week, so be sure to grab them right away.