Apple touts App Store milestones for 5th anniversary

A picture of the poster was posted online on Wednesday by Tim Bradshaw, a reporter with the Financial Times. The actual anniversary will fall in one week, on July 10.

It was that same day in 2008 that the iPhone App Store debuted with more than 500 apps. The App Store opening coincided with the launch of the second-generation iPhone, dubbed iPhone 3G.

Today, there are more than 850,000 applications on the App Store, and the library has also expanded to a new product lineup, the iPad. There are 350,000 native iPad applications also available on the App Store.

Apple's digital storefront achieved its 50 billionth download in May. To put the growth in perspective, the App Store reached just 1 billion downloads in 2009, while the 10 billionth download came in 2011.

The poster sent out by Apple touts some of the most popular choices on the App Store, including ames like Angry Birds, Temple Run and Fruit Ninja; streaming services Netflix and HBO Go; and other options like Time Magazine and Paper.

Also touted by Apple is the amount of money paid to developers to date — more than $10 billion. One study released last week found that iPhone applications need to earn $47,000 per day to crack the top 10 grossing options on the App Store.