Apple's App Store reaches 40B downloads, almost half occurred in 2012

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Apple on Monday announced that more than 40 billion applications have been downloaded from the iOS App Store, with nearly 20 billion of those in 2012 alone.

There are more than 500 million active accounts on the App Store, and those users helped to drive a record breaking December in which more than 2 billion applications were downloaded. There are now more than 775,000 applications for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and developers have been paid more than $7 billion to date.

"It has been an incredible year for the iOS developer community," said Eddy Cue, Apple?s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "Developers have made over seven billion dollars on the App Store, and we continue to invest in providing them with the best ecosystem so they can create the most innovative apps in the world."

App Store


The press release issued by Apple on Monday comes as the annual Consumer Electronics Show gets underway. CES is the biggest tradeshow in the electronics industry, but Apple does not participate.

The company used the opportunity to highlight a handful of apps on Monday that have found success among the hundreds of thousands of options on the App Store. Those mentioned include: Among the 775,000 applications on the App Store, more than 300,000 are native to the iPad. The App Store is available in 155 countries, and options on the store fall under 23 categories.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 34
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member
    Wow. That's insane
  • Reply 2 of 34
    ifij775ifij775 Posts: 470member
    If developers made $7B, can we assume apple made $3B? That's incredible! Here's hoping Microsoft Office for iPad in 2013
  • Reply 3 of 34
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member
    Astounding.
  • Reply 4 of 34

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ifij775 View Post



    If developers made $7B, can we assume apple made $3B? That's incredible! Here's hoping Microsoft Office for iPad in 2013


    For what?


     


    Maybe it has some use, but for the large majority of users MSoffice equals trash.

  • Reply 5 of 34
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    <li><a href="http://appleinsider.com/l/?link=https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragonvale/id440045374?mt=8">DragonVale</a> and <a href="http://appleinsider.com/l/?link=https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clash-of-clans/id529479190?mt=8">Clash of Clans</a> from developer Supercell, which earned more than $100 million.

    Dragonvale is from Backflip, not Supercell. Dragonvale has about 8 M users according to Game Center. The app is free and people can buy extra gems, but I doubt if the average users spends much - you can do almost everything without spending gems if you wish. It would be interesting to have the actual numbers.
    ifij775 wrote: »
    If developers made $7B, can we assume apple made $3B? That's incredible! Here's hoping Microsoft Office for iPad in 2013

    'Made' implies profit. The $7 B number (and Apple's matching $3 B number) is revenues, not profit. Apple reportedly doesn't make much money on iTunes downloads because of the infrastructure cost.
  • Reply 6 of 34
    500 million accounts. I wonder how many have credit cards attached and how many Google has. Activation numbers mean square if they aren't spending in the store.

    Also curious why Apple released these figures today when their earnings call is two weeks away. Could it be to steal some thunder at CES?
  • Reply 7 of 34
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member
    500 million accounts. I wonder how many have credit cards attached and how many Google has. Activation numbers mean square if they aren't spending in the store.
    Also curious why Apple released these figures today when their earnings call is two weeks away. Could it be to steal some thunder at CES?

    In some countries Apple requires you to have a credit card to register for Apple ID so I guess most of these have CC or GC in their accounts.
  • Reply 8 of 34
    ifij775ifij775 Posts: 470member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pedromartins View Post


    For what?


     


    Maybe it has some use, but for the large majority of users MSoffice equals trash.



    I don't know where you work, but for most companies in the US MSOffice is the standard office suite bar none. This is critical for enterprise sales.

  • Reply 9 of 34
    ifij775ifij775 Posts: 470member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post





    Dragonvale is from Backflip, not Supercell. Dragonvale has about 8 M users according to Game Center. The app is free and people can buy extra gems, but I doubt if the average users spends much - you can do almost everything without spending gems if you wish. It would be interesting to have the actual numbers.

    'Made' implies profit. The $7 B number (and Apple's matching $3 B number) is revenues, not profit. Apple reportedly doesn't make much money on iTunes downloads because of the infrastructure cost.


    Yes, I realize that's revenue. Apple originally said they didn't see the App Store as a profit center, but I expect with increased scale it could be a profit boon. I expect the App store margins for Apple to exceed their other businesses, and a 30% cut is far more than Amazon makes off its Marketplace sellers.

  • Reply 10 of 34
    reefoidreefoid Posts: 158member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ifij775 View Post


    Yes, I realize that's revenue. Apple originally said they didn't see the App Store as a profit center, but I expect with increased scale it could be a profit boon. I expect the App store margins for Apple to exceed their other businesses, and a 30% cut is far more than Amazon makes off its Marketplace sellers.



    No, its exactly the same, Amazon pay developers 70% of of app revenue.


     


    edit - unless you don't mean the AppStore in which case you may be correct!!

  • Reply 11 of 34
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    And in other news Apple stock is down again today while Amazon is up 5% on an upgrade saying the stock is going to $325. Their PE is now 3,192 on EPS of 8 cents. :lol:
  • Reply 12 of 34

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ifij775 View Post


    I don't know where you work, but for most companies in the US MSOffice is the standard office suite bar none. This is critical for enterprise sales.



    Critical? Only because enterprise users are as dumb as a rock, together with MSoffice's software engineers.


     


    Please, just because the IT world is too stupid to evolve, it doesn't mean Apple has to obey them (they never did). Not only that, MS will find a way to make Office as shittiest as possible, like they do on the desktop. Same arguments as flash lovers... "but but but you need flash for the interwebz.".


     


    Create alternatives. If the IT world mattered (to Apple), Apple wouldn't be as great as they are now, people would still use IE, the mobile arena wouldn't exist.

  • Reply 13 of 34
    kdarlingkdarling Posts: 1,640member


    That's a lot of personal data being collected.   Credit, purchases, locations, media preferences.


     


    With all that info and demographics available to sell targeted ad placements, it's a bit surprising that iAds isn't doing better.


     


    --


     


    Re: app store royalties, some interesting info:


     


     


    Interestingly, a developer might make more money writing BREW apps for a flip phone, due to less competition:


     



    • $7 billion royalties across 200,000 iOS developers = average $35K per iOS developer.


    • BREW Featurephone apps = $3 billion across 38,000 developers = average $78K per developer.

  • Reply 14 of 34

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by KDarling View Post


    That's a lot of personal data being collected.   Credit, purchases, locations, media preferences.


     


    With all that info and demographics available to sell targeted ad placements, it's a bit surprising that iAds isn't doing better.


     


    --


     


    Re: app store royalties, some interesting info:


     


     


    Interestingly, a developer might make more money writing BREW apps for a flip phone, due to less competition:


     



    • $7 billion royalties across 200,000 iOS developers = average $35K per iOS developer.


    • BREW Featurephone apps = $3 billion across 38,000 developers = average $78K per developer.



    Well, iAds is doing better than anything google-Ads related on mobile (Android + iOS). That was the point, cut Google's revenue while providing competition and choice.


    Apple-haters must be having a bad time lately... Even google's BS "free" and "do no evil" world that only works with lesser minds isn't enough to bring Apple down.


     


    Apple was never as strong as it is, the difference in quality between Apple-products and competitors was never as big.


     


    Great, isn't it?

  • Reply 15 of 34
    ifij775ifij775 Posts: 470member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by reefoid View Post


    No, its exactly the same, Amazon pay developers 70% of of app revenue.


     


    edit - unless you don't mean the AppStore in which case you may be correct!!



    Yea, I meant their standard product sales (ie books, furniture, media) , but you are right about software sales.

  • Reply 16 of 34
    jakebjakeb Posts: 562member


    Announces 40 billion downloads; stock drops 1%. 


     


    I wish a different company were the #1 stock. There's too much trader psychology weirdness at the top.

  • Reply 17 of 34
    tbelltbell Posts: 3,146member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pedromartins View Post


    Well, iAds is doing better than anything google-Ads related on mobile (Android + iOS). That was the point, cut Google's revenue while providing competition and choice.


     



     


     


    If Apple was serious about that, it would make iAd cross platform. Apple is trying to use the program to give iOS developers a way to make money. However, I suspect most developers develop for both platforms. Apple might as well make some money from that development by under cutting Google in price on its own platform to hurt Google where it will hurt most. 

  • Reply 18 of 34

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by KDarling View Post


    That's a lot of personal data being collected.   Credit, purchases, locations, media preferences.


     


    With all that info and demographics available to sell targeted ad placements, it's a bit surprising that iAds isn't doing better.


     


    --


     


    Re: app store royalties, some interesting info:


     


     


    Interestingly, a developer might make more money writing BREW apps for a flip phone, due to less competition:


     



    • $7 billion royalties across 200,000 iOS developers = average $35K per iOS developer.


    • BREW Featurephone apps = $3 billion across 38,000 developers = average $78K per developer.



     


    The difference between Apple and Google with regards to personal information is Googles revenue is based on the information they collect and sell to third parties. Apple's revenue is from hardware and their personal data collection is more of an internal thing to help them improve their products. It's a significant difference. Companies have long tried to get Apple to release more information about their customers and Apple has refused every time. I'm not worried about what Apple knows about me nearly as much as what Google does.


     


    Dividing App revenue among total developers? This has already been hashed over and it's meaningless. A large portion of Apps are free and make their developers no money at all. They are provided as a service, not a revenue generator. Think of banks as a prime example. Half of the Apps I have are for organizations, forums, sports teams or others who make no money at all from their App (not direct money, but likely money from offering customers better services).


     


    Bottom line is iOS still has developers favoring it over Android by more than 2:1. So much for Eric Schmidt's prediction in Dec 2011 that this would flip and developers would favor Android since, you know, developers go where the market share is, not the money. /S

  • Reply 19 of 34
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post



    500 million accounts. I wonder how many have credit cards attached and how many Google has. Activation numbers mean square if they aren't spending in the store.

    Also curious why Apple released these figures today when their earnings call is two weeks away. Could it be to steal some thunder at CES?


     


    Apple commonly makes announcements during electronic conferences it does not attend, so yes, that is why. 

  • Reply 20 of 34
    v5vv5v Posts: 1,357member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post


    [...] Bottom line is iOS still has developers favoring it over Android by more than 2:1. So much for Eric Schmidt's prediction in Dec 2011 that this would flip and developers would favor Android since, you know, developers go where the market share is, not the money. /S



     


    I wonder how much of the present developer weighting towards iOS is for practical reasons and how much is just inertia?


     


    It's really only in the last year or less that any attention has been given to the idea of Android being a serious contender for user mindshare. That makes me wonder if development is still largely focussed on iOS at least partly because that's what developers are used to, and may shift towards Android as they see increased potential on that platform?

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