Apple's App Store generated over $10 billion in revenue for developers in record 2014

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2015
Apple on Thursday touted the success of its App Store, revealing that the digital storefront saw billings rise 50 percent last year, generating 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, Apple revealed. And 2015 is off to an even better start: New Years Day last week was the single biggest day ever in App Store sales history.
The first week of 2015 was the biggest yet for the iOS App Store, Apple said.
"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."

The first week of January set a new record for billings from the App Store, with customers spending nearly a half-billion dollars on apps and in-app purchases in the seven-day span.

Apple also spotlighted the success of Apple Pay and its integration for third-party apps. The iPhone maker said some of the most popular options include HotelTonight, OpenTable, Target, and Ticketmaster.

"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."




Also noted on Thursday was the success of Apple's Apps for (RED) campaign, where a number of third-party developers added exclusive content, and all proceeds went to the Global Fund to fight AIDS. The effort helped Apple raise $20 million for (RED) during the holiday quarter, pushing the company's total all-time contributions over $100 million.

Options on the App Store are divided into 24 categories. One development studio highlighted by Apple was Australia's Hipster Whale, maker of "Crossy Road."

"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."

In addition to bringing about record sales, 2014 was also a big year for changes on the App Store. The launch of iOS 8 marked the debut of Swift, a new programming language for creating iPhone and iPad apps, as well as Metal, Apple's graphics technology that maximizes the horsepower of its A7 and A8 chips found in the latest mobile devices.

Last year Apple also launched TestFlight for beta testing pre-release apps. The company also gave developers the ability to offer app previews and bundles, launched an expanded Kids Category for children under 12, and added China UnionPay as a payment option for customers in China.

The App Store debuted in 2008, a year after the iPhone first launched. There are now more than 1.4 million apps available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, with 725,000 of those made specifically for the larger display of the iPad.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 44
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    Apple on Thursday touted the success of its App Store, revealing that the digital storefront saw billings rise 50 percent last year, generating 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, Apple revealed. And 2015 is off to an even better start: New Years Day last week was the single biggest day ever in App Store sales history.

    That's the same amount as 2013:

    http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/07/apple-10b-in-app-store-sales-in-2013-15b-paid-out-to-developers-to-date/

    2007-2012: $5b
    2013: $10b
    2014: $10b

    The number of payments/billings might be rising but the prices must be going down. Around $1b of the $10b will be going to King/Candy Crush, ~$5b to the top 25 apps (EA Games, Gameloft/Ubisoft etc).
  • Reply 2 of 44
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member

    Marvin,

     

    I think you read that wrong the tech Crunch add said Apple made $10M and in told today payed out $15B up to 2013, and in 2014 alone Apple paid out $10B it does not say how much apple made in 2013 from the store.

  • Reply 3 of 44

    From what I heard, $13.5 billion is via in-app purchases.

  • Reply 4 of 44
    Interesting they mentioned Target in combination with Apple Pay for online sales when they've been so hostile to Apple Pay at retail.

    Also, Crossy Road is genius...an improved isometric view of the game Frogger!
  • Reply 5 of 44
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member

    More data

     

    http://www.techspot.com/news/58456-google-play-vs-app-store-downloads.html

     

    Google Android cheapskates down loaded more but developers made far less.

  • Reply 6 of 44
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member

    Meanwhile I’m watching CNBC and the punditry is discussing the downgrading of Google. The idea is that Google has run its course. This seems to be the case when you consider the troubles the handset makers are having and the fact that Google’s bread and butter is advertising. GOOG has been flat the last year.

     

    But it’s always Apple that’s doomed. 

  • Reply 7 of 44
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    maestro64 wrote: »
    More data

    http://www.techspot.com/news/58456-google-play-vs-app-store-downloads.html

    Google Android cheapskates down loaded more but developers made far less.
    "The App Store still dominates financially, with developers finding it generates over 60% more revenue than Google's Play Store. This might sound a lot, but last year, the App Store generated around 210% more revenue. At this growth, the Play Store could be more profitable by this time next year."
    http://www.developer-tech.com/news/2014/oct/15/play-store-plays-catch-ios-revenue/
  • Reply 8 of 44
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Maestro64 View Post

     

    Marvin,

     

    I think you read that wrong the tech Crunch add said Apple made $10M and in told today payed out $15B up to 2013, and in 2014 alone Apple paid out $10B it does not say how much apple made in 2013 from the store.


     

    That's what I got. The 2013 figure is total revenue, the 2014 figure is paid to developers (which would make revenues $14.2 billion. A solid 40% increase from 2013).

     

    In 2013 Apple would have made $3 billion (30% cut from $10 billion revenues).

  • Reply 9 of 44
    gatorguy wrote: »
    "The App Store still dominates financially, with developers finding it generates over 60% more revenue than Google's Play Store. This might sound a lot, but last year, the App Store generated around 210% more revenue. At this growth, the Play Store could be more profitable by this time next year."
    http://www.developer-tech.com/news/2014/oct/15/play-store-plays-catch-ios-revenue/

    I wouldn't bet on the accuracy of their theory, especially as currency fluctuations and new EU rules on app refunds will hit Google the same as Apple.
  • Reply 10 of 44
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Apple stock up over 3% today. Glad I bought some more a few days ago. :smokey:
  • Reply 11 of 44
    rogifan wrote: »
    Apple stock up over 3% today. Glad I bought some more a few days ago. :smokey:

    Up just over 2% by my reckoning. Three percent would be even better.
  • Reply 12 of 44
    gatorguy wrote: »
    "The App Store still dominates financially, with developers finding it generates over 60% more revenue than Google's Play Store. This might sound a lot, but last year, the App Store generated around 210% more revenue. At this growth, the Play Store could be more profitable by this time next year."
    http://www.developer-tech.com/news/2014/oct/15/play-store-plays-catch-ios-revenue/

    Don't buy that for a minute. At 60% of Apple that represents billions in revenue for Google. Yet they lump Google Play revenues in the "other" category on their financial statements.

    If they were actually making that much then it would deserve its own category.
  • Reply 13 of 44
    solipsismysolipsismy Posts: 5,099member
    maestro64 wrote: »
    More data

    http://www.techspot.com/news/58456-google-play-vs-app-store-downloads.html

    Google Android cheapskates down loaded more but developers made far less.

    Does that include ad revenue?

    lkrupp wrote: »
    Meanwhile I’m watching CNBC and the punditry is discussing the downgrading of Google. The idea is that Google has run its course. This seems to be the case when you consider the troubles the handset makers are having and the fact that Google’s bread and butter is advertising. GOOG has been flat the last year.

    But it’s always Apple that’s doomed. 

    I think Google (just like Microsoft) are going to be around for a very long time.
  • Reply 14 of 44
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    gatorguy wrote: »
    "The App Store still dominates financially, with developers finding it generates over 60% more revenue than Google's Play Store. This might sound a lot, but last year, the App Store generated around 210% more revenue. At this growth, the Play Store could be more profitable by this time next year."
    http://www.developer-tech.com/news/2014/oct/15/play-store-plays-catch-ios-revenue/

    The latter is an estimate of course.

    Expect that Apples recent upgrades will dominate more of the higher end all through 2015 relative to 2014. So it won't reverse.
  • Reply 15 of 44
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Up just over 2% by my reckoning. Three percent would be even better.

    I just checked Yahoo and it's now up almost 4% and the company I work for stock is up almost 5% today and has now become a $100B company. :smokey:
  • Reply 16 of 44

    Talking of apps, won't most of the purchases be Apple ones?

    I'm thinking of iMovies, iBooks, iMagazines and iMusic.

  • Reply 17 of 44
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by aBeliefSystem View Post

     

    Talking of apps, won't most of the purchases be Apple ones?

    I'm thinking of iMovies, iBooks, iMagazines and iMusic.




    None of those are apps...iBooks is, but it's included in the system and didn't cost anything in the first place.

  • Reply 18 of 44
    Damn!
    But according to Apple analyst the company is on the verge a collapse! OMFG!!!
    Close to 200 billion in the bank and almost no debt but it's slipping into the darkness!
    Somebody hold me!
  • Reply 19 of 44
    Error
  • Reply 20 of 44
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Maestro64 View Post

     

    More data

     

    http://www.techspot.com/news/58456-google-play-vs-app-store-downloads.html

     

    Google Android cheapskates down loaded more but developers made far less.


     

    What, what a toxic and unhealthy environment for developers Android is. Google loves shrieking about how much they love developers, how much freedom they give them, etc, but at the end of the day developing for Android seems to be a losing proposition, no matter how much "marketshare" the platform has. All the evidence you need is in these new product videos, where the devs of apps/products always show an iPhone being used instead of an Android phone- because they know that even though Android phones are being sold by 78,928 companies in a billion models, all those sales combined still can't touch the purchasing power of iPhone users. 

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