70% of App Store's 10bn downloads made in last year

Apple has announced that downloads from its App Store have now passed ten billion.

The iPhone firm revealed that around seven billion of those downloads had occured during the last year - following a record quarter in which Apple claimed $6 billion in profit.

The ten billionth App was downloaded on Saturday 22 January, with UK citizen Gail Davis from Kent being awarded a $10,000 iTunes gift card for being the downloader in question. Her app of choice was Paper Glider.

"With more than 10 billion apps downloaded in just two and a half years-a staggering seven billion apps in the last year alone-the App Store has surpassed our wildest dreams," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

"The App Store has revolutionised how software is created, distributed, discovered and sold. While others try to copy the App Store, it continues to offer developers and customers the most innovative experience on the planet."

While Schiller was referencing the likes of Android and Nokia in his statement, the iPad firm is currently involved in a legal showdown with Microsoft over Apple's claimed trademark of the term 'app store.'