Last March, Apple racked up 25 billion app downloads from the iTunes App Store, and awarded one lucky Chinese citizen $10,000 for picking the very last one. Now, it could be your turn: Just 14 months later, Apple's approaching 50 billion downloads, and it's offering the same $10,000 prize once again. As of this posting, a counter on Apple's website reads 49.2 billion downloads, and is ticking up fast — fast enough that Apple is periodically refreshing the counter to keep up with the actual pace at which consumers are downloading apps. It took nine months for Apple to reach one billion downloads, and four years to hit the 25 billion mark. At 49 billion and counting, it's almost hard to believe that iTunes used to just sell music.