App Store Sales Top $10 Billion in 2013, Over $1 Billion in December

[MacRumors]

Apple announced today that App Store sales topped $10 billion in 2013, including a record breaking $1 billion in December alone, where App Store customers downloaded almost three billion apps. Overall, Apple has paid out over $15 billion to App Store developers.

"We'd like to thank our customers for making 2013 the best year ever for the App Store," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "The lineup of apps for the holiday season was astonishing and we look forward to seeing what developers create in 2014."

In its press release, Apple also highlighted a number of popular and emerging apps and developers while drawing special attention to a few larger developers that particularly embraced the new look and features of iOS 7, which was released in September.

Apple announced a year ago that the App Store had passed 40 billion downloads, with half of those coming in 2012. The company also announced that December 2012 brought over two billion downloads, with 500 million user accounts registered.

In May 2013, Apple hit 50 billion worldwide app downloads, which it celebrated with a promotion for a $10,000 gift card for the person who downloaded the 50 billionth app. The App Store also reached one million live apps in December.

Article Link: App Store Sales Top $10 Billion in 2013, Over $1 Billion in December

 

[ZacNicholson]

So is apple still doomed?

 

[maflynn]

Nice, I think this keeps the critical mass going and continues to entice developers to write apps for the platform.

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

I wonder how much of that revenue were from in-app purchases?

 

[DavidMonteiro]

I wonder how much of that revenue were from in-app purchases?

Probably from impatient Candy Crush players...

(Just something I noticed... That App Store icon is not even the actual icon...)

 

[lolkthxbai]

(Just something I noticed... That App Store icon is not even the actual icon...)

Yup, that "A" is kinda small

 

[2457282]

I contributed a large chunk to this effort in December. Apple now owns my house and kids -- I still have the wife, but not sure for how long.

 

[jonnysods]

Those numbers are stunning.

 

[Skika]

This icon is incorrect.

 

[thelonelylimo]

Yup, that "A" is kinda small

Different tip on the paintbrush and another line in the pencil.

 

[Traverse]

That's just pocket change!

But seriously, I'm glad for this because I hope it motivates developers to continue to make quality apps. However, I wonder how much of this went to the few big name developers. Also, like others have posted, I wonder how much came from useless in all purchases for mindless games...

I'll pay for a quality app and buy in app purchases to extend functionality, but I will not pay $99.99 for "1,000,000,000,000" coins to buy a weapon or new car.

 

[Winni]

So is apple still doomed?

They're about as doomed as Microsoft or Samsung... But as we could observe more than once in the last few decades, markets, trends and hypes can change quickly and the larger a company gets, the slower it can adept and change. When the next big thing (TM) comes, Apple should better have -THE- product for that market. Only a few years ago, it was unthinkable that Blackberry and Nokia would become endangered species. There also was a time when the entire IT industry was afraid of IBM. Empires and success stories don't last forever.

 

[MacFather]

Deleted.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Is this Mac App Store + iTunes App Store?

BTW, the icon is the iOS App Store icon, not the OS X App Store icon.

 

[HMI]

That's a whole lotta pesos!

 

[Jessica Lares]

I spent like $200 in apps last year. I can't wait to buy more this year.

 

[roadbloc]

I wonder how much of that revenue were from in-app purchases?

+1. It would be very interesting to know this as I regard in-app purchases/freemium stuff as the cancer of the software world.

 

[blackcrayon]

I wonder if Apple could "celebrate" by dropping their cut of app sales to 25% (and thus the rest of the industry, who would immediately copy Apple on this).

 

[pipa]

I'm not surprised at this data. I've been using the App Store since day one and have always said that this was the future of gaming. Now that we're seeing these POWERFUL chips I expect to see this number increase ten fold in the next few years.

 

[Thunderhawks]

I contributed a large chunk to this effort in December. Apple now owns my house and kids -- I still have the wife, but not sure for how long.

It is being said that electronics in the bedroom will create problems.

But, if you want to get rid of your wife it's a good way to start.

 

[goodcow]

I wonder if Apple could "celebrate" by dropping their cut of app sales to 25% (and thus the rest of the industry, who would immediately copy Apple on this).

Why would they give up $50 million for a single month?

 

[BarryL]

Damn that's a lot of dinero! But Apple has fallen from grace right?

 

[gnasher729]

So is apple still doomed?

Of course. Didn't you read they paid out $15bn to developers? Surely they will go bankrupt, paying out all that money

 

[mikeheenan]

Why is it when these figures are announced Apple always says they "pay out" x amount to developers? To me the verbiage comes off a bit arrogant but at the same time I'm guessing it's so that Apple doesn't want people to claim they take the whole cut.

 

[goodcow]

Why is it when these figures are announced Apple always says they "pay out" x amount to developers? To me the verbiage comes off a bit arrogant but at the same time I'm guessing it's so that Apple doesn't want people to claim they take the whole cut.

They want to show developers how much money the market is worth, and what they're potentially missing out on if not already part of the ecosystem.