Android offers 25p apps to celebrate 25 billion downloads

The Google Play Store is offering big-name apps for just 25p in celebration of hitting 25 billion downloads -- less than four years after the app store formerly known as Android Market was launched.

The home of 675,000 apps and games is offering discounts for the next five days. Each day collections of apps from big-name developers like Electronic Arts, Rovio and Gameloft will be in the bargain bin -- so head on over today and get your thumbs all over juicy deals including Angry Birds Space, Asphalt 7, runtastic Pro and OfficeSuite Pro 6.

Google will also offer up special collections such as 25 best-selling books and 25 must-see movies to rent, both at 99p a pop.

It took just 1,435 days for Android's app and media store to hit the whopping download figure, but it was bested by Apple's App Store by a mere 101 days. Apple took 1,334 days from launch to reach the same number, according to our sister site CNET News.

The search giant also decided to spell out how big a number this is on its blog: "Twenty-five billion is more than twice the distance, in miles, that the Voyager 1 spacecraft has travelled since its launch 35 years ago. It's the amount of time, in minutes, that have passed since some of our earliest ancestors began to set foot in Europe." Thanks for the heads-up Google, I for one had no idea that 25 billion was a big number.

Jamie Rosenberg, the Big G's director of digital content, also paid tribute to all of its users for getting it to this milestone and said, "We look forward to the next 25 billion." 

Ambitious? Probably not. Android recently hit 500 million activated devices worldwide and shows no sign of slowing down as an eye-watering 1.3 million new devices are added to that total every day.

If only they could convince more people to spend their hard-earned cash. A recent survey found that 66 per cent of Android users haven't paid a penny for any apps they've downloaded -- only 33 per cent of iOS users, on the other hand, fall into this category. 

Do you think the unstoppable force of Google will ever slow down? Or do you just love the new discounts? Either way let me know below or over on our Facebook page.