What did you do last week? Apple’s App Store made $500 billion in the 1st week of 2015. That’s incredible to think about. So while you were working on a new years resolution. Apple in only eight days was making money hand over fist. The App Store is not even Apple’s main source of income. We all know that is the iPhone. However, with the iPhone needs the store and anything else that comes from Apple. The soon to be released Apple Watch will be no different. For every single dollar that is spent in the App Store, Apple gets its cut. That 30 cents per dollar or 30% adds up. It should be no surprise when Apple announces record sales like these. The App Store made $10 billion in 2013 and it made $15 billion last year. That is more than most companies make in a year but that was pocket change to Apple. The company makes about $183 billion in sales yearly. The App Store is great for developers even though Apple takes a bigger cut than other platforms such as Google Play or Amazon AppStore.
While the App Store is great for developers, large companies don’t fancy adding to Apple’s bottom line. That is why many companies have to stayed away from offering services or products on the App Store. Amazon, Netflix and Google still don’t offer users the any option to buy services via the Apple App Store. However, sometimes when you can’t do it alone due to having a weak platform (I’m looking at you Windows Phone) you have to succumb to the 800 pound gorilla. Microsoft just recently started offering Office on the ecosystem.
CUPERTINO, California―January 8, 2015―Apple® today announced that the first week of January set a new record for billings from the App Store℠ with customers around the world spending nearly half a billion dollars on apps and in-app purchases, and New Year’s Day 2015 marked the single biggest day ever in App Store sales history. These milestones follow a record-breaking 2014, in which billings rose 50 percent and apps generated over $10 billion in revenue for developers. To date, App Store developers have earned a cumulative $25 billion from the sale of apps and games. The introduction of iOS 8, the most significant iOS update ever, gave developers the ability to create amazing new apps and offers innovative features which proved wildly popular with App Store customers around the world.
“This year is off to a tremendous start after a record-breaking year for the App Store and our developer community,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “We’re so proud of the creativity and innovation developers bring to the apps they create for iOS users and that the developer community has now earned over $25 billion.”
During the holiday season App Store customers helped make history with their support of Apps for (RED), a special initiative on the store with exclusive content where all proceeds went to the Global Fund to fight AIDS. Apple donated a record-shattering $20 million this quarter, and since partnering with (RED) has donated over $100 million.
Developers of all sizes, across the App Store’s 24 categories, create incredible apps for iOS, and an especially inspired segment is the newest generation of independent game creators, including the UK’s ustwo, maker of the fantastic game Monument Valley; Australia’s Hipster Whale, creator of the clever and intuitive game Crossy Road; and US developer Sirvo, inventor of Threes!, a puzzle game that was named the App Store’s Game of the Year on iPhone®.
“We could never have dreamed of this level of success, with Crossy Road only being available on the App Store for the last six weeks of the year,” said Matthew Hall, co-founder of Hipster Whale. “In a couple of months we were able to create a simple, fun game that was featured on the App Store and climbed to the top of the App Store charts around the world—it’s amazing.”
Developer innovation on the App Store in 2014 was fueled by iOS 8 featuring Swift, a powerful new programming language that makes it even easier for developers to create great apps, as well as the introduction of robust frameworks HealthKit and HomeKit. HealthKit lets health and fitness developers share data with the Health app while HomeKit is a framework allowing developers to create software that discovers, configures, communicates with and controls devices for home automation. iOS 8 also introduced developers to Metal, a graphics technology created to maximize the performance of the A7 and A8 chips, which is being embraced by major game developers around the world.
In 2014, the App Store also unveiled new features for developers including app previews and app bundles, TestFlight for beta testing pre-release apps, an expanded Kids Category to showcase apps specifically made for children under 12, China UnionPay as a payment option for customers in China and Apple Pay™, making secure purchases even easier.
Since its October release, Apple Pay has been a favorite of customers, merchants and app developers. More banks and credit unions continue to add support for Apple Pay, now representing about 90 percent of credit card purchase volume in the US. Leading merchants including Bloomingdale’s, Disney Store, Duane Reade and Walgreens are letting their customers enjoy the ease of use, security and privacy of Apple Pay. Some of the most popular apps including HotelTonight, OpenTable, Target and Ticketmaster are also enjoying the convenience and privacy of Apple Pay, making it even easier for users to make secure purchases.
“The response we’ve seen from HotelTonight customers since the introduction of Apple Pay has been fantastic,” said Sam Shank, CEO, HotelTonight. “Our current customer base is enjoying the convenience of Apple Pay and we’re continuing to see a growing number of new customers because of Apple Pay’s easy and secure approach to payments.”
Apple ignited the app revolution with the launch of the App Store in 2008, and since then, an entire industry has been built around app design and development. In just six years, the iOS ecosystem has helped create 627,000 jobs in the US alone.* The App Store offers more than 1.4 million apps for iPhone, iPad® and iPod touch® users in 155 countries around the world, with more than 725,000 of these apps made for iPad. App Store customers can choose from an incredible range of apps in 24 categories, including games, social networking, photo & video, sports, health & fitness, travel, kids and many more.
*For more detailed information on Apple’s impact on job creation please visit www.apple.com/about/job-creation.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
