Apple has earned a record $155 billion from its App Store since 2008 when the platform was launched. The iPhone and laptop maker earned $1.42billion from the store between Christmas and New Year Day alone.
Apple said a quarter of the $155billion from the App store was earned in 2019.
In a press release touting the company’s burgeoning services division, Apple said that its suite of services – which includes Apple Music, Apple News, and the App Store – enjoyed a record-breaking year in 2019.
Backdrop: 2019 was a transformative year for Apple’s services business. There’s not much here, frankly. Apple paid developers $38B in 2019, a quarter of what they’ve earned since the App Store launched in 2008 – $155B.
App Store spending totalled US$1.4 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, up 16 per cent from the same period in 2018, the Cupertino, California-based company said in a blog post.
Apple Podcasts offers over 800,000 shows in 155 countries. So there you go: More countries than content.
Apple News. This is the big surprise, given the lack of quality and the fact that no one reads any more: Apple says that News has “over 100 million monthly active users in the US, UK, Australia and Canada”.
With demand for smart phones and other hardware peaking, Apple has been striving to boost sales from purchases of apps and subscription services like its newly launched Apple TV+ streaming service or Apple Care maintenance packages.
Apple could soon offer consumers a bundle combining News+ with Apple Music and Apple TV+ as part of its broader strategy to use services as a driver of revenue, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives. None of which are exclusive to Apple.
The disclosure set the company shares northward on Wednesday, soaring as much as 2.4%, reported Market Insider.
The holiday-week sales represented a 16% increase over last year’s figure, according to the statement. App Store revenue totaled $386 million on New Year’s Day alone, a 20% jump from the year-ago figure and a record for single-day sales.
The past year was the biggest yet for the company’s increasingly important services sector, Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services, said in the announcement.
“We begin the new decade with incredible momentum and gratitude to our customers who have shown such enthusiasm for all of our Services, and we continue to celebrate the work of the world’s best creators, storytellers, journalists and developers,” Cue said.
The Cupertino, California-based company helped push major stock indexes higher throughout 2019, surging 86% over the 12-month period on strong iPhone 11 demand and rapid growth in its wearables business. The annual gain was Apple’s best since 2009.