The success of the iPhone and iPod Touch is unprecedented and nothing exemplifies that like a counter of the number of applications downloaded to these two devices. Apple, recently announced that nearly 25,000 applications were hosted on the App Store, and now with nearly one billion of those apps have been downloaded.

To commemorate this amazing feat, Apple is hosting  a simple contest with some killer giveaways, simply download an app to your iPhone or iPod Touch or fill out a form and you’re all set. Enter often and daily and good luck to us all.

UPDATE: Looks like we’ve reached a billion downloads since I took the capture some 13 days ago. The expectation was that one billion downloads would be reached by Friday the 24th, but turns out it was reached a day sooner. Now the wait to see who the lucky winner of the cool prizes is.

Cheers

My iPhone 3G is finally here and I’m having a blast using it. I was able to move the SIM card from my previous Nokia phone into the iPhone and get going immediately.

Cheers

The weekend elapsed and now we have a plethora of those early adopters complaining about everything from the ring tones to the unsuccessful phone activation. I just find this sort of bouncing attitude very amusing. Before buying their beloved iPhones, these people were certain that Apple could do no wrong. Forget the fact that you’re being asked to pay $499 or $599 for the 4GB and 8GB variety of the iPhone AND a2-year contract with AT&T (the exclusive carrier) that you have to sign to even use this sucker.

There aren’t any numbers that I’ve seen tracking the number of people who bought the iPhone for their own use as opposed to trying to make a quick buck selling it to other fans who were not willing to sit in line for days. But, I can imagine that a large number of iPhones were sold and now imagine that many people all sitting at home on the weekend trying to activate their respective phones. Is it really that much of a surprise that the AT&T servers were overwhelmed? But I guess to some, it truly is surprising as they’re whining about not being able to use their shiny new iPhone.

As much as the features of the iPhone are intriguing, AT&T’s prior history of lackluster service and Cingular’s spotty network hasn’t convinced me to switch over from my very reliable Verizon service. I might someday consider the iPhone, when Verizon starts to offer it and the price as dropped to about $49.99 for the 8GB variety and I can get it as a free upgrade.

Early adopters be damned. You guys can figure out all the quirks and issues, I’ll wait for everything to be ironed out and the 2nd generation phones to hit the market before I even think about getting the iPhone.

Cheers