Cupertino, Calif.-based consumer electronics giant Apple has promised a $10,000 App Store gift card to the person who downloaded the 10 billionth app.

Apple’s App Store reached the milestone on Saturday, in less than three year after it went online in July 2008. The company announced that the gift card would be handed over to Gail Davis of Orpington, England, who purchased the 10 billionth app.

Phil Schiller, marketing senior vice president at Apple, said that App Store performed better than their expectations.

Speaking on the topic, Schiller said, "With more than 10 billion apps downloaded in just two and a half years — a staggering 7 billion apps in the last year alone — the App Store has surpassed our wildest dreams.”

The grand success of Apple’s App Store encouraged several other big players like Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Microsoft's Windows mobile platforms to launch their own app stores. But, none of the rival app stores could effectively challenge the dominance of Apple's App Store.

Market leader Apple’s App Store offers more than 300,000 free as well as paid apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The Android Market is at the second position, with around 130,000 apps.