I Love This Rule

I was intrigued by the Apple promotion for a $10,000 gift card for the person that downloads app number 10,000,000,000.  Even more interesting is the fact you can enter without downloading using the form at https://www.apple.com/itunes/10-billion-app-countdown/entry-form/.  There’s a little checkbox at the bottom of the form that you agree to the official rules.  Intrigued even more, I took a look at the rules at https://www.apple.com/itunes/10-billion-app-countdown/rules/index.html.  Section 3 is particularly amusing.  Here’s the direct quote:

Timing. The Promotion shall begin on January 6, 2011 and ends with the downloading of the 10 billionth app (“Promotion Period”). For purposes of the Promotion, the downloading of the 10 billionth app is considered to be either the downloading of the 10 billionth app from the App Store or the receipt of the non-purchase entry after the download of the 9,999,999,999th app, whichever comes first. Only entries submitted in this time period will be accepted. Sponsor’s computer is the official time keeping device for this promotion.

Someone has a sense of humor. Good luck submitting your entry.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 18, 2011
  I might be missing the joke here, but this makes sense since a majority of "purchases" from the AppStore are for free apps.  The wording dances around the fact that a "purchased" free app is counted for the purposes of this promotion, but is not necessary to actually download the purchase immediately (or at all)

• Anonymous
  January 18, 2011
  I wasn't referring to that at all. I was referring to the fact that you can submit the form, but your timing has to be perfect because it has to arrive at the official counting computer after the 9,999,999,999th app download transaction, but before the next one.   You obviously need some serious luck to pull that off.