Apple’s App Store generated more than $10bn in sales last year, roughly as much as it produced in the previous four years combined, cementing the company’s lead over Google in a key battleground of mobile computing.
The US company said on Tuesday that it had now passed on $15bn to developers in the life of the App Store, which was launched in 2008. That compares with the more than $7bn that it said developers had earned by this time last year, pointing to a surge in sales over the past 12 months.
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Apple keeps 30 per cent of app sales and of in-app purchases, which have become the main way developers charge for their mobile software services.
“For all that people argue about whether apps are the future, they’re growing very fast – people like downloading them,” said Benedict Evans, a UK-based mobile analyst.
Google does not disclose revenues for apps sold through its Play store, though it recently surpassed Apple in terms of the number of apps downloaded since it launched the rival service.
The soaring sales of Android phones and the rising number of downloads from Google’s service have started to attract more attention from mobile developers. If it were to lose its position as the mobile platform with the hottest new games and other apps, or the widest selection of software, Apple would lose one of its key remaining advantages over Android, according to analysts. However, users of Apple’s iPhone and iPad are estimated to spend considerably more in the App Store than their Android counterparts, helping to keep most developers squarely focused on iOS. Google’s Play accounted for 37 per cent of spending on apps in November, compared with 63 per cent in the Apple store, according to research firm Distimo, though the gap between the two had narrowed.
Apple’s mobile advantage was also seen in sales made by ecommerce companies during the recent holiday season. According to research by IBM, Apple devices accounted for nearly 13 per cent of all online sales in the fourth quarter of 2013, more than five times as much as Android.
The higher App Store sales reflect the fact that Apple’s gadgets cost more, attracting more affluent users, and the fact that Google has billing arrangements with fewer mobile carriers for consumers to buy through its store, said Mr Evans.
The estimated $3bn that Apple netted from app sales in 2013 barely registers against the $170bn in total revenues it recorded in its last fiscal year. Apple said at the time it launched the App Store that the service was not intended to be a money-earner in its own right.
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