App Store Hits New Single-Day Revenue Record on New Year's Day With Customers Spending $322 Million

[MacRumors]

Following the news that iPhone sales were down during the month of December leading Apple to cut its guidance for Q1 2019, the company is aiming to soften the blow with some positive news.

Apple today announced that App Store customers set new worldwide spending records over the holidays, with App Store purchases hitting $1.22 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

On New Year's Day specifically, customers spent over $322 million on App Store purchases, setting a new single-day record.

"The App Store had a record-breaking holiday week and New Year's Day. The holiday week was our biggest week ever with more than $1.22 billion spent on apps and games, and New Year's Day set a new single-day record at more than $322 million," said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Thanks to the inspiring work of our talented developers and the support of our incredible customers around the world, the App Store finished off an outstanding 2018 and kicked off 2019 with a bang."

Gaming and self-care were the most popular app downloads and purchases during the holidays. Fortnite and PUBG were some of the most downloaded games over the holiday period, along with Brawl Stars, Asphalt 9, and Monster Strike.

According to Apple, the App Store drove its services category revenue to a new all-time record during the holiday quarter, with multiple Apple services that include the App Store, Apple Music, Cloud Services, Apple Pay and the App Store's search ad business setting new records.

With Apple selling fewer iPhones, the company is hoping investors will shift focus to other areas of its business. Apple in November said that it will no longer provide unit sales data for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, but yesterday said other information, such as gross margin of services, will be provided.

Article Link: App Store Hits New Single-Day Revenue Record on New Year's Day With Customers Spending $322 Million

 

[JPack]

We get it, Apple. Revenue in Services is growing.

The problem is hardware has plateaued and is expected to drop faster than Services can keep up. And Services relies on Apple hardware.

Not to mention there's a lot more competition against Apple Pay and Cloud Services.

 

[seatton]

The PR team and Timmy working really hard to get the stock price up to over $200 / s

 

[TouchMint.com]

I’d almost wager that the 1% and indies divide is getting larger. Apple has turned the store into a blog where if you are not mentioned it’s getting harder and harder to be found. Seems to make them more money so I don’t see it changing back anytime soon.

 

[Wags]

Exactly, trying to forget about their decisions. Invest in other areas? Like Mac OS and hardware. Ha ha. Apple just collects profit on everyone else’s work on the App Store. Maybe they should open up the vault and give us awesome products instead of bread crumbs year over year.

 

[George Dawes]

Apple rules . ok ?

 

[Kanyay]

lol stock goes crashing so pr team goes nuts putting out good info about other stuff smh apple ya aint fooling anyone. even northwest sees thru this.

 

[LordVic]

lol stock goes crashing so pr team goes nuts putting out good info about other stuff smh apple ya aint fooling anyone. even northwest sees thru this.

"Look it's not all doom and gloom, looks how great December 25th was for activiations!"...

"What about the other 364 days a year?"

"NOTHING TO SEE HERE!"

 

[rtomyj]

Exactly, trying to forget about their decisions. Invest in other areas? Like Mac OS and hardware. Ha ha. Apple just collects profit on everyone else’s work on the App Store. Maybe they should open up the vault and give us awesome products instead of bread crumbs year over year.

You, uh, don’t know what you’re talking about. Look up iOS SDK and realize Apple engineers made that.

 

[kemal]

USD96,600,000 in one day selling apps. Sure sucks to be Apple.

 

[Cosmosent]

RE: "The App Store had a record-breaking holiday week and New Year's Day. The holiday week was our biggest week ever with more than $1.22 billion spent on apps and games, and New Year's Day set a new single-day record at more than $322 million," said Phil Schiller, ...


If Phil Schiller was NOT in charge of the App Store, those numbers would be 10x what they were !

Phil Schiller made changes to the App Store on Sept 1st, 2016, that Broke the Store even more so than when he took it over !

 

[nwcs]

I’d almost wager that the 1% and indies divide is getting larger. Apple has turned the store into a blog where if you are not mentioned it’s getting harder and harder to be found. Seems to make them more money so I don’t see it changing back anytime soon.

Apple doesn’t pretend to be the marketing arm for every App Store submitter. Ultimately it’s up to the individual/team to promote their app and build the brand recognition.

 

[rcooked]

First year in a long time our family spent zero on any apps, etc... over the holidays. I think Apple is in more trouble than folks realize. Wait until our economic picture changes with a recession, and see how well the consumer holds up then.

I can’t imagine rising rates are helping at the moment either.

This is just starting.

 

[dannyyankou]

I've bought maybe 3 total apps over the last five years. I'm surprised.

 

[cocky jeremy]

But.. but.. but.. I thought Apple was doomed?!

 

[LiE_]

That’s a lot loot boxes.

 

[Hym tix]

imagine how good revenues would be if AppStore were anything other than absolutely awful!

 

[Mars56]

I've bought maybe 3 total apps over the last five years. I'm surprised.

You are not the only person that uses Apple devices.

 

[ryanwarsaw]

It's a start. It will help offset companies taking their subscriptions outside of the iTunes pay system. I can only imagine what their revised guidance would have been with out this boost. If they didn't factor this in and beat their latest guidance by this figure approximately we will still know how phone sales went.

It will take a longer period before iPhone sales get tricky to estimate. Apple is in a bad spot if there is a recession. $1,000 phones won't fly if there is a big slow down. They should if they can maybe develop more of their own apps and make all of the profit. Although their in house apps are never was good as what third parties come up with.

In recessions content usually is a good thing as people stay home. Can't afford to go out? get a TV and some subscriptions for content and stay home and weather it out. Apple needs to move very quickly now they are years late on the service side.

 

[Duel]

Not to mention there's a lot more competition against Apple Pay and Cloud Services.

What competition Apple Pay has? Also i don't think iCloud have much competition either. I pay for iCloud monthly, using Dropbox for free. Icloud has my backup, dropbox i use for transfer files from PC to iOS.

 

[falainber]

I wonder why Google does not brag about XMas day sales on Google Play Store. Were the sales not so good or they don't feel like they need to prop up their stock?
[doublepost=1546540673][/doublepost]

What competition Apple Pay has? Also i don't think iCloud have much competition either. I pay for iCloud monthly, using Dropbox for free. Icloud has my backup, dropbox i use for transfer files from PC to iOS.

How about Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Wechat, Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, cash etc?

 

[Duel]

I wonder why Google does not brag about XMas day sales on Google Play Store. Were the sales not so good or they don't feel like they need to prop up their stock?
[doublepost=1546540673][/doublepost]
How about Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Wechat, Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, cash etc?

How those are competition for Apple Pay? How i use Samsung pay or google pay with my iPhone? Competition means i want to use some other services with my phone instead Apple Pay so Apple would lose money. I could use banks own payment systems, but those aren't the level of Apple Pay. Best part with Apple pay is that you don't need extra app. What Apple pay offers in usability it's impossible to beat.

I use cash or card like 1-2 times a month.

 

[joueboy]

This kind of Apple PR used to work really good, even when Tim admitted that he'sashe it helps bump Apple stocks. I don't somebody cares about this kind of PR from Apple and Tim it gets old and the only benefiting are shareholders. Whatever floats your boat Tim!

 

[JPack]

What competition Apple Pay has? Also i don't think iCloud have much competition either. I pay for iCloud monthly, using Dropbox for free. Icloud has my backup, dropbox i use for transfer files from PC to iOS.

Alipay alone has about triple the number of users compared to Apple Pay.

If you travel across the globe, you'll more likely see the Alipay logo on a taxi or merchant window than Apple's.

 

[Doomtomb]

We get it, Apple. Revenue in Services is growing.

The problem is hardware has plateaued and is expected to drop faster than Services can keep up. And Services relies on Apple hardware.

Not to mention there's a lot more competition against Apple Pay and Cloud Services.

And just to put some perspective on this. Services pulls in the Millions. Hardware sales makes up the Billions.