Apple App Store is 5, more free apps for iPhone and iPad, all-time top apps revealed

By Rik Henderson | Pocket-lint – 

As expected yesterday, as part of the iTunes App Store's fifth birthday celebrations, Apple and individual publishers have made 10 key applications free for a limited period. We told you that Tiny Wings, Where's My Water?, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery, Traktor DJ, Infinity Blade II and Badland were now free - representing mark downs of as much as £15 - and four more have been revealed today.

Children's discovery and learning app Barefoot World Atlas is included, as is Day One Journal, a feature-rich diary that lets you add pictures, text and GPS locations and sync it all to iCloud or Dropbox. How to Cook Everything, a resource containing more than 2,000 recipes, is up for grabs, and Over is also part of the offer. The last app allows you to add captions, logos and doodles on top of your photos.

Along with those free apps, Apple has also revealed some interesting statistics from the App Store's first five years. For a start, did you know that the average number of apps downloaded per App Store visitor (up to September last year) was over 100? And that more than 800 apps are downloaded every second? Blimey.

The interesting stats are based on the apps themselves. And specifically Apple's list of the most downloaded over the last five years.

For iPhone, Angry Birds rules the roost for paid apps, with Fruit Ninja, Doodle Jump, Cut the Rope and Angry Birds Seasons making up the rest of the top five. For free (or freemium) apps, Facebook is king on the iPhone. The rest of the top five are Pandora radio (American Spotify rival), Instagram, YouTube and Skype.

Apple itself takes top spot in the most downloaded paid iPad app chart with its word processor Pages. Then Angry Birds comes in again, with Angry Birds HD and Angry Birds Seasons HD taking second and third. Where's My Water? and Fruit Ninja HD make up the top five. You could say that Disney's Where's My Water? is most successful, therefore, as it is the newest of the top apps by far, so hasn't had as long to accrue downloads.

Skype for iPad is the top free iPad app, followed by The Weather Channel for iPad, Netflix, Angry Birds HD Free and Amazon's Kindle app.

Here's to the next five years.

Those all-time top 10 charts in full (taken up to 2 May 2013):

Top 10 Free iPhone All-Time: 

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

Top 10 Paid iPhone All-Time: 

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

Top 10 Paid iPad All-Time:

1. Pages
2. Angry Birds HD
3. Angry Birds Seasons HD
4. Where's 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

Top 10 Free iPad All-Time:

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

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