Apple app store prepares to celebrate the download of its 10 billionth app

Move over, Ringo — there's a new top dog on Apple's meaningless milestone block. As visitors to Apple's website may have noticed, the Cupertino computer maker has begun counting down — or perhaps, up — to its ten-billionth app download. That's right, ten billion.

To put that in perspective, you Verizon iPhone hopefuls would need about 500,000 brand new iPhones, each crammed full with tens of thousands of apps, to have a chance at catching up.  

Apple is also holding a contest to see who grabs the magical ten-billionth app (I'll bet anything it will be Angry Birds), and is offering a $10,000 prize to the lucky downloader. If you don't have an iPhone or iPad, don't fret, you can even sign up to enter the contest the old-fashioned way — by email. Now, Steve Jobs has long been known for his savvy marketing and slick ad campaigns, and it looks like this is shaping up to be another — wait, the prize is a $10,000 iTunes gift card?

So if I win by buying more apps, Apple gives me $10,000, which I then...  Well played, sir.