Apple's App Store is about to hit 10 billion downloads, and in honor of the achievement, Apple said it will award its 10 billionth customer with a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

Apple has an App Store download counter on its Web site and as of 11:30am Eastern time, it had registered approximately 9.76 billion downloads and counting.

"As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks," Apple said in a note on its Web site. "Download the 10 billionth app, and you could win a US $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Just visit the App Store, and download what could be your best app yet."

App Store users are limited to 25 entries or downloads per day, and use of automated software to improve your chances is not allowed. The winner must agree to let Apple use their name and likeness for publicity purposes.

Separately, Apple recently added a game from Activision's wildly popular "Call of Duty" franchise to its Mac App Store for $49.99.

"Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" is a community-oriented, multiplayer game. It's not the newest offering in the franchise - that would be "Call of Duty: Black Ops" - but it has remained popular since its 2007 release. The game is nearly 7GB, however, so make sure your machine can handle the download. For more details, see PCMag's full review of the game.

The Mac App Store launched on January 6 and had one million downloads within 24 hours. For more details, see PCMag's hands on with the store and the slideshow below.

Editor's Note: This story was corrected at 12:15pm to note that the App Store is hitting 10 billion downloads, not the Mac App Store.