• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, May 6, 2013

Even as the polish seems to have dulled on the Apple corporation's once blindingly shiny brand image, the company still has massive and impressive numbers with which to dazzle us. The Apple App Store is counting down to its 50 billionth download in the coming days, and the company is marking the occasion with an updated set of lists around the top 25-all-time app downloads.

On the iPhone, the free category is dominated by third-party brands that have seen enormous migrations of their user base to the smartphone, or in the case of Instagram have pretty much been invented by the phone. In the paid category, it's no surprise to see gaming fully dominate, with the legendary Angry Birds franchise leading the way.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the top app list is how person-to-person connections, via social networks and calling/messaging tools, remain the leading function that people pursue. 

On the iPad, utility and entertainment dominate the top tiers, led by Skype for iPad and followed by The Weather Channel app as well as Netflix, Angry Birds, and Kindle from Amazon. On the paid content side, Apple itself occupies several of the top slots, with its word processor Pages as the number one paid app on the tablet, with GarageBand in the seventh position and Keynote the 10th.

In addition to the utilities from Apple that are among the iPad bestsellers, we can see how the tablet has emerged as a replacement for the laptop among many users as well, as it has emerged as an entertainment and newsgathering hub. When we move down into the bottom end of the top downloads list, we start seeing the ABC Player, YouTube, eBay and CNN. Likewise, we see utilities aimed at moving content and viewing content across screens, such as Dropbox and Adobe Reader. The full lists are reproduced below.

Top 25 All Time Paid Apps - iPad

1. Pages
2. Angry Birds HD
3. Angry Birds Seasons HD
4. Where Is My Water?
5. Fruit Ninja HD
6. Angry Birds Space HD
7. GarageBand
8. Words with Friends HD
9. Cut the Rope HD
10. Keynote
11. Numbers
12. Angry Birds Star Wars HD
13. GoodReader for iPad
14. Scrabble HD for iPad
15. Minecraft – Pocket Edition
16. Plants Vs Zombies HD
17. Notability
18. Monopoly for iPad
19. Quick Office Pro HD
20. Star Walk HD
21. Draw Something
22. iMovie
23. iPhoto
24. Where’s My Perry?
25. Bad Piggies HD

Top 25 All-Time Free Apps for IPad

1. Skype for iPad
2. The Weather Channel for iPad
3. Netflix
4. Angry Birds HD Free
5. Kindle
6. Facebook
7. Pandora Radio
8. Calculator for iPad Free
9. Fruit Ninja HD Free
10. Words with Friends HD Free
11. Google Earth
12. ABC Player
13. Calculator Pro for iPad Free
14. Temple Run
15. YouTube
16. EBay for iPad
17. CNN App for iPad
18. Dropbox
19. Adobe Reader
20. Twitter
21. Solitaire
22. NYTimes for iPad
23. Temple Run 2
24. Hulu Plus
25. Draw Something Free

Top 25 All-Time Paid Apps for IPhone

1. Angry Birds
2. Fruit Ninja
3. Doodle Jump
4. Cut the Rope
5. Angry Birds Seasons
6. WhatsApp Messenger
7. Camera+
8. Words with Friends
9. Tiny Wings
10. Angry Birds Space
11. Pocket God’s Return
12. Plants Vs Zombies
13. The Game of Life Classic
14. The Moron Test
15. Where’s My Water?
16. Draw Something
17. Monopoly
18. Angry Birds Star Wars
19. MotionX GPS Drive
20. Skee-Ball
21. Scrabble
22. UNO
23. Minecraft – Pocket Edition
24. Color Splash
25. The Sins 3

Top 25 All-Time Free Apps for IPhone

1. Facebook
2. Pandora Radio
3. Instagram
4. YouTube
5. Skype
6. Words with Friends Free
7. The Weather Channel
8. Twitter
9. Temple Run
10. Google Search
11. Netflix
12. Shazam
13. Angry Birds Free
14. Draw Something Free
15. Flashlight
16. Facebook Messenger
17. Google Earth
18. Fruit Ninja Free
19. iHeartRadio
20. Movies by Flexter with Rotten Tomatoes
21. Bump
22. eBay
23. Pac-Man Lite
24. Groupon
25. Google Maps