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Apple Announces Record $1.1 Billion App Store Sales During Holiday Season

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Apple today announced the 2015 holiday season was the "biggest ever" for the App Store, with customers spending a record-breaking $1.1 billion on apps and in-app purchases over a two-week period ending January 3, 2016.

Christmas Day and New Year's Day both set single-day records, with customers spending over $144 million on January 1, 2016. Apple has now paid out nearly $40 billion to developers worldwide since the App Store launched in 2008.

Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said App Store sales topped $20 billion in 2015:
"The App Store had a holiday season for the record books. We are excited that our customers downloaded and enjoyed so many incredible apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV, spending over $20 billion on the App Store last year alone," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "We're grateful to all the developers who have created the most innovative and exciting apps in the world for our customers. We can't wait for what's to come in 2016."
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Apple said it has now created 1.9 million jobs in the U.S., with over 1.4 million of those jobs attributable to app development and non-IT jobs supported by the app ecosystem. Apple's spend and investment with US-based suppliers also supports 361,000 jobs, and the company directly employs more than 76,000 people in the U.S., representing nearly two-thirds of its worldwide team.

Apple created two new app ecosystems this year with the new Apple TV and Apple Watch, building upon its iOS and Mac storefronts. The company keeps 30% of App Store revenue, meaning it earned over $6 billion in 2015 after paying developers. There are now over 1.6 million apps on the App Store, according to MacRumors sister website AppShopper.

Article Link: Apple Announces Record $1.1 Billion App Store Sales During Holiday Season
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/06/app-store-1-1-billion-record-holiday-sales/
dumastudetto

dumastudetto

macrumors 603
Aug 28, 2013
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It's great to see so many iOS developers making so much money.

It's also no wonder why almost all the world's great software developers are building apps for Apple's platforms.
 
peterdevries

peterdevries

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Coder0101 said:
Over 90% of this money is made by only 1% of all apps. So - being an iOS developer is NOT the solution if you want to make money. You have to be ONE of the 1% (or even less)... and you need a ton of luck and marketing money!
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A surprisingly large group of iOS developers reached the top by skills alone. If you have a good idea and can implement it, then luck and marketing budget do not need to be factors.
 
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Coder0101

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Jan 6, 2016
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peterdevries said:
A surprisingly large group of iOS developers reached the top by skills alone. If you have a good idea and can implement it, then luck and marketing budget do not need to be factors.
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Well, i know over 100 iOS developers and only 1 or 2 of them have been (relatively) successful. Let's revise that to: You either need luck OR marketing money. A good idea is a must, of course. But this alone does not make your app successful.
And - it helps to have Apple on your side to get a worldwide promo.
In addition, competition is tough... for every good idea there are 3-4 remakes quickly. It's not guaranteed that YOUR app is the one to win ;-)
 
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firedept

firedept

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Very good sales. Would be nice to see the developer make a higher percentage for the work and effort they put into their apps. Has to be tough to keep up with all the changes Apple makes to OS X & IOS.
 
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blackcrayon

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Mar 10, 2003
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firedept said:
Very good sales. Would be nice to see the developer make a higher percentage for the work and effort they put into their apps. Has to be tough to keep up with all the changes Apple makes to OS X & IOS.
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Yeah it seems like Apple could get by changing the industry standard to 20% at this point. Because Google and others would quickly follow. But to shareholders I guess that would be flushing money.
 
peterdevries

peterdevries

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Feb 22, 2008
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Coder0101 said:
Well, i know over 100 iOS developers and only 1 or 2 of them have been (relatively) successful. Let's revise that to: You either need luck OR marketing money. A good idea is a must, of course. But this alone does not make your app successful.
And - it helps to have Apple on your side to get a worldwide promo.
In addition, competition is tough... for every good idea there are 3-4 remakes quickly. It's not guaranteed that YOUR app is the one to win ;-)
Click to expand...

I said skill. That is something else then a good idea. The fact that you might know 100 developers does not mean that you know a representative sample of the entire developer community.

edit: a good idea is not even needed. There are numerous examples of copycat games and apps that are in the top grossing list. Look at Alto's Adventure, a game produced by a tiny group of developers (I think it is only a duo) that was quickly noticed because of the SKILL in implementation on an idea that was as old as Canabalt.
 
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dmylrea

macrumors 601
Sep 27, 2005
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0815 said:
it always amazes me how much money a company, that is according to all the experts here doomed, can make .....
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Except for some sarcasm remarks, I think you're the only one recycling the old, stale "Apple is Doomed" prophecy. "All the experts here" aren't saying it at all.
 
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e93to

e93to

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Jan 23, 2015
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I bought 2 Mac apps (Popclip and Metro Last Light) when they were on sale, so I contributed $9 to that record.

I suspect that most of that $1.1 billion came from games, especially on iOS devices. Games mostly take up top paid apps.
 
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firewood

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Jul 29, 2003
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blackcrayon said:
Yeah it seems like Apple could get by changing the industry standard to 20% at this point. ... But to shareholders I guess that would be flushing money.
Click to expand...

And given which way the AAPL stock price is going, flushing money might cause shareholder activists to try and fire the executives who think that's a good idea. I'd rather that Apple spend that 10% on better marketing of a deeper catalog of apps under that top few percent. Spread the winnings around a bit more as well as make the App store even more popular.
 
DanielSw

DanielSw

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Aug 31, 2009
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Coder0101 said:
Over 90% of this money is made by only 1% of all apps. So - being an iOS developer is NOT the solution if you want to make money. You have to be ONE of the 1% (or even less)... and you need a ton of luck and marketing money!
Click to expand...

Wrong. This is NOT as black and white an issue as you profess.

Developing is no different than any other endeavor. Nothing worthwhile is easily obtained. It simply takes a lot of hard work, good ideas, and a lot of follow-through.

We are also NOT slaves to your statistics. Anything is possible.
 
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