• April 27, 2009

In case you hadn't noticed, Apple hit the 1 billion download mark on apps for the iPhone and iPod touch. The company celebrated the milestone Friday with large leaderboard and banner ads on the home pages of major Web publishers such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

The creative shows a stream of app icons pouring into an iPhone from one ad unit to the other, similar to the tandem ads Apple has used previously in its Mac v. PC campaign online.

Apple had launched a Web page counting down to the billionth download two weeks ago to promote the benchmark and on Friday revealed that Connor Mulcahey, a 13-year-old from Weston, Conn., had downloaded the billionth app: Bump, a contact information-sharing application from Bump Technologies.

As the winner of a contest Apple sponsored, he gets a $10,000 iTunes gift card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule and a MacBook Pro. With all that gear, he could be the next Steve Jobs.--Mark Walsh