According to Statisa, the App Store paid out $34 billion from Jan-18 to Jan-19. At 1.9million developers, that's an average of ~$18K per developer per year.
I'm sure that $34 Billion was worldwide, not just in the US alone. So if true, 1.9 Million developers in the US did not earn an average of $18,000/yr.
Good catch. Last year Tim Cook announced there are now 20 million iOS developers worldwide. Fluffed number that doesn't actually say what you think it does? Probably. If just a third or them are "real" developers that still comes out to less than $6,000 each.
Knowing that games are the primary revenue source for the App Store, and stats are showing the top 50 of those (out of 800,000 games) are taking around 76% of the total profits from the segment it's clear the vast majority of developers make little to nothing for their trouble. https://blog.apptopia.com/apple-grossing-ranks
Without consumers doing their part, none of those jobs exist. Apple isn't operating in a vacuum. They depend on a lot more than just themselves to be successful.
Trump has been targeting Apple to bring back manufacturing to the US, which is just PR and unfeasible. Apple is responding in kind, with a big number for PR. The “real” number is Apple employs 90,000. The rest are going to be double counted. Very few venders are solely Apple venders, very few app developers are Apple only.
You could say “correctly” the App Store pays out X billion to companies in the US. But, it’s all about JOBS lately, which is an overly simplistic analysis but the average joe can understand it.
It’s not unfeasible. Tim may not like what it does to the costs, but that doesn’t make it unfeasible. And please don’t bring up the screw story.
I think counting 1.9 million app developers is a bit of an overstatement - how many of those are driving enough income to consider it a job and how many of them are doing as a hobby?
Without consumers doing their part, none of those jobs exist. Apple isn't operating in a vacuum. They depend on a lot more than just themselves to be successful.
Gee how profound. You know you can say that about literally any company, right?
gatorguy said: it's clear the vast majority of developers make little to nothing for their trouble.
Not all developers need to be paid by Apple/Google/App Store Owners directly. There are banking Apps, ride sharing apps, food delivery apps etc. The developers of those apps would be paid by the companies who asked them to develop even though they are "free" in the App/Play stores.
gatorguy said: it's clear the vast majority of developers make little to nothing for their trouble.
Not all developers need to be paid by Apple/Google/App Store Owners directly. There are banking Apps, ride sharing apps, food delivery apps etc. The developers of those apps would be paid by the companies who asked them to develop even though they are "free" in the App/Play stores.
Good point. Which would also make the 1.9M figure substantially higher, since Apple can only count the registered developers, not the dev work that's outsourced.
gatorguy said: it's clear the vast majority of developers make little to nothing for their trouble.
Not all developers need to be paid by Apple/Google/App Store Owners directly. There are banking Apps, ride sharing apps, food delivery apps etc. The developers of those apps would be paid by the companies who asked them to develop even though they are "free" in the App/Play stores.
It looks as tho based on numbers that around half the apps in the AppStore are games. The type of apps you refer to can't be more than another 10% I wouldn't think. I doubt it changes the average revenue figures per developer much if any.
There's a wide divide between the highest revenue apps, say the top 10, and even the next 25. By the time you get to the bottom half there's not much at all left to divvy up. Link to an article about it again in case you originally missed it. https://blog.apptopia.com/apple-grossing-ranks
gatorguy said: it's clear the vast majority of developers make little to nothing for their trouble.
Not all developers need to be paid by Apple/Google/App Store Owners directly. There are banking Apps, ride sharing apps, food delivery apps etc. The developers of those apps would be paid by the companies who asked them to develop even though they are "free" in the App/Play stores.
It looks as tho based on numbers that around half the apps in the AppStore are games. The type of apps you refer to can't be more than another 10% I wouldn't think. I doubt it changes the average revenue figures per developer much if any. There's a wide divide between the highest revenue apps, say the top 10, and even the next 25. By the time you get to the bottom half there's not much at all left to divvy up.
Comments
If just a third or them are "real" developers that still comes out to less than $6,000 each.
Knowing that games are the primary revenue source for the App Store, and stats are showing the top 50 of those (out of 800,000 games) are taking around 76% of the total profits from the segment it's clear the vast majority of developers make little to nothing for their trouble.
https://blog.apptopia.com/apple-grossing-ranks
There's a wide divide between the highest revenue apps, say the top 10, and even the next 25. By the time you get to the bottom half there's not much at all left to divvy up.
Link to an article about it again in case you originally missed it.
https://blog.apptopia.com/apple-grossing-ranks