It's hard to believe that it was only five years ago that Apple first opened the App store and began selling third party-developed software for the iPhone. At the time there were only 500 programs available, and the concept of such a store seemed pretty foreign to most people who had never owned a smartphone.

But the world has changed quite a bit, as Apple announced on May 16 that they had sold the 50 billionth iOS app.

"The App Store completely transformed how people use their mobile devices and created a thriving app ecosystem that has paid out over nine billion dollars to developers," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in a company news release. "We're absolutely floored to cross this milestone in less than five years."

There are currently 850,000 apps available for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches in the App Store, with another 350,000 programs that run on the iPad exclusively. The proliferation of this type of software is one of the reasons Apple has been able to develop such an enthusiastic following among users, and it's also why coders are continuing to produce fantastic applications even though Google's Android operating system technically has more users worldwide. 

The downloader of the software was Brandon Ashmore of Mentor, Ohio. He received a $10,000 App Store Gift Card for buying Say the Same Thing by Space Inch, LLC, a word game developed by the band OK Go.

If you haven't yet purchased an Apple iPad 4 or iPad mini, check out PortableOne's selection and find out why both consumers and professionals can't get enough of these tablets.