App Store Sees Record-Breaking $300 Million in Purchases on New Year's Day

[MacRumors]

The App Store had a record-breaking holiday season according to a new press release issued by Apple this afternoon. During the week starting on Christmas Eve, a record number of customers made App Store purchases, spending more than $890 million in that seven-day period.

On New Year's Day 2018 alone, customers made $300 million in purchases. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said the company is "thrilled" with the reaction to the revamped App Store that was introduced as part of iOS 11.

"We are thrilled with the reaction to the new App Store and to see so many customers discovering and enjoying new apps and games," said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "We want to thank all of the creative app developers who have made these great apps and helped to change people's lives. In 2017 alone, iOS developers earned $26.5 billion -- more than a 30 percent increase over 2016."

According to Apple, popular augmented reality game Pokémon Go topped the App Store charts on December 21 after new AR features were introduced. Apple says there are close to 2,000 ARKit-enabled apps on the App Store, with popular titles including CSR Racing 2, Stack AR, Kings of Pool, Amazon, Wayfair, Night Sky, Pitu, and Snapchat.

Apple's ARKit mention comes following a report that has suggested interest in ARKit apps is waning. App Store data shared yesterday by Apptopia suggests developers have been releasing fewer ARKit-compatible apps over the course of the last two months.

Apple in iOS 11 introduced a new App Store that separates apps and games into distinct categories for improved app discovery. The redesigned App Store also features a "Today" section that's updated on a daily basis with new and popular apps and games.

Article Link: App Store Sees Record-Breaking $300 Million in Purchases on New Year's Day

 

[farewelwilliams]

considering that a lot of apps are unnecessarily turning into the subscription model, this isn't surprising.

 

[jonnysods]

Those are insane numbers.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I still see some 32-bit apps from developers that have not had time to update. I wonder when Apple will remove them completely from the App store.

 

[apolloa]

Well that’s 90 million $ for Apple in one day..

 

[Rochy Bay]

Alexa App download was the TOP #1 . It is free and also pretty much a slap to Siri.
Seems as if the latest posts here were paid by Apple itself lol. Just saying!

 

[lincolntran]

Meanwhile, on other app stores....

 

[C DM]

Alexa App download was the TOP #1 . It is free and also pretty much a slap to Siri.
Seems as if the latest posts here were paid by Apple itself lol. Just saying!

• Amazon's Alexa App Climbed to #1 on the iOS App Store's Top Free Chart After Christmas

 

[IGI2]

Well done ARKit, well done!

 

[djcerla]

Let that sink in for a moment: $890M in seven days.

 

[Abazigal]

considering that a lot of apps are unnecessarily turning into the subscription model, this isn't surprising.

I don’t see the link.

 

[gnipgnop]

Wow...I liked the iOS 11 revamp to the App Store too, but those numbers are crazy good! Maybe they'll extend that type of approach to the Movie/TV purchases later on. It definitely pulls you in to the content more effectively.

 

[David G.]

Now imagine if the Mac App Store was one tenth as good as the iOS App Store

 

[Bart Kela]

I still see some 32-bit apps from developers that have not had time to update. I wonder when Apple will remove them completely from the App store.

As long as there are still a fair number of iOS device users running an older version of iOS that is compatible with 32-bit apps, I would think Apple would keep these available. For example, if you have an iPhone 5S running iOS 9, your device is still very capable of running 32-bit apps.

 

[TheMacDaddy1]

Alexa App download was the TOP #1 . It is free and also pretty much a slap to Siri.
Seems as if the latest posts here were paid by Apple itself lol. Just saying!

"and also pretty much a slap to Siri"

How so? If you don't own a echo why would you use this app on a iOS device?

 

[farewelwilliams]

I don’t see the link.

off the top of my head:

Ulysses
Bear
Astropad Studio
Duet Pro
Clip Studio Paint for iPad
Day One
Evernote


of these, Evernote has a reason to charge a subscription since they provide the backend services (for cross platform reasons). the others don't have a reason to be subscription based (even Bear uses the user's iCloud storage, they aren't providing any backend services).

 

[DocMultimedia]

Last year it was $240M in one day. This year $300M. 25% growth in one year. Not bad.

 

[Abazigal]

off the top of my head:

Ulysses
Bear
Astropad Studio
Duet Pro
Clip Studio Paint for iPad
Day One
Evernote


of these, Evernote has a reason to charge a subscription since they provide the backend services (for cross platform reasons). the others don't have a reason to be subscription based (even Bear uses the user's iCloud storage, they aren't providing any backend services).

No, I mean as in, I don’t see the link between higher App Store revenue and the move towards subscription based models. But you raise a good point in that I don’t see how subscriptions factor into this calculation, if at all. If anything, won’t they count as $0 for this purpose?

Did I miss something?

 

[Starship67]

off the top of my head:

Ulysses
Bear
Astropad Studio
Duet Pro
Clip Studio Paint for iPad
Day One
Evernote

Only ever used Day One and Evernote and since moving them to the subscription model I've dumped them.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

2012 was the last time that I bought an app

 

[td2243]

... and there are still people on this forum waiting for some Mac Mini announcement and can't figure out why it hasn't happened.

 

[farewelwilliams]

No, I mean as in, I don’t see the link between higher App Store revenue and the move towards subscription based models. But you raise a good point in that I don’t see how subscriptions factor into this calculation, if at all. If anything, won’t they count as $0 for this purpose?

Did I miss something?

lower barrier of entry vs paying a high price once. why would it cost $0?

 

[Cosmosent]

RE: "Apple in iOS 11 introduced a new App Store that separates apps and games into distinct categories for improved app discovery."

Actually, that's incorrect !

Call it what it is, a "curated" App Store.

There is NO App Discovery anymore, NOT after the transition that started Sept 1st, 2016, and with the follow-up that resulted in the iOS 11 App Store changes.

The main problem used to be Rankings.

Now, the main problem is Apple / Tim Cook / Phil Schiller has a complete Stranglehold on App Discovery.

This will ONLY get solved if Apple lets us sell our iOS apps OUTSIDE of the iOS App Store.

Games & Streaming Media content apps are thriving INSIDE the iOS App Store ... everything else isn't doing so well.

- John Snow
Lord Commander

 

[rafark]

I thought Apple didn't disclose sales numbers......

 

[_Kiki_]

every year less interesting apps on holiday sale

also too many freemium apps.. meh..