OLLIE Christie, a developer who runs an applications and game design company near Oxford England, was surprised with an email on his phone over the weekend that read “Mr. Christie, I’m with Apple in Cupertino, Can you call me? I have some good news to share”. After returning the phone call, he was told that his “Paper Glider” app was the App Store’s 10 billionth download, which earned the downloader, another British resident, a $10,000 iTunes Gift card.
Christie said he was initially quite excited because he thought the message from Apple meant he was the winning downloader, and he had been watching the digital counter on Apple’s website along with millions of Apple users around the world. He said he had just put his kids to bed when he checked his phone and after reading the message, “My heart was going pitter-patter.”
Gail Davis was the lucky winner of the $10,000 iTunes Gift card, after one of her teenage daughters downloaded Christies’ program. Davis first hung up on the caller notifying her of the win, because she assumed it was a prank call. Her daughters convinced her to call Apple and so she was eventually able to claim the prize.
Christie, whose career in copywriting, and online game development includes the “Bikini-Bounce” game, will not enjoy the $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, but he is already benefiting from a huge increase in the number of downloads because of the immense publicity Apple generated around its App store benchmark.
Davis says, "The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a genuine call. The girls were getting quite tense. They never would have forgiven me. They would have held it against me for all eternity."
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