App Store Earnings For Developers Exceed $70 Billion; App Downloads Up 70% YoY (macstories.net) 63
Apple announced today that since it launched in 2008, developers have earned over $70 billion from the App Store. From an article: "People everywhere love apps and our customers are downloading them in record numbers," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Seventy billion dollars earned by developers is simply mind-blowing." According to Apple's press release, subscriptions saw a 58 percent increase year over year, fueled by their availability in all 25 app categories. Games and Entertainment are the App Store's top grossing categories, Lifestyle and Health and Fitness apps have experienced 70 percent growth, and the Photo and Video category is up over 90 percent.
And yet... (Score:1)
Try to imagine how much more money would be made if they allowed adult/porn/hentai apps.
msmash, apple, and carbon (Score:1, Troll)
Re: Who does? (Score:1)
That's a really cool anecdote, bro, but we know that you don't actually have any friends, so you're not fooling anyone.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm glad you asked. It's easy to calculate what the average is for those who aren't in the top 1,000.
$70 billion 2.2 million current apps gives 31k per app per 9 years. say 3.5 k per year. Now you have to deduct for apps that used to be in the store but are no more, so let's be generous and say the rate of attrition is 50% over the last 9 years (it's probably much higher). That means the average app makes $1.75 k per year.
So let's be nice again, and say that the top 1,000 apps take 90% of the revenue (it'
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"No reasonable person would believe our advertising"
If you think they're actually telling the truth with this $70B figure, I have to say LOL.
If this figure is accurate, then I'll bet this includes the $100/year/dev and whatever cost corporations need to pay for MDM, and the 30% that gets skimmed off... Wouldn't be surprised if it included the hardware (the desktop and phone) that devs have bought. Throw in the cell companies that need to pay APL multimillion dollars to just have their phone on the network.
Of course, this could be just a fake number...
This is royalty payments to App Developers. Nothing more, nothing less.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Most app devs are either suckers or they've got a customer who is a sucker.
Spot on. Apple Store app devs are for the most part Apple customers. Gartner usually releases a report every year about the business of selling apps, and last year their research indicated that less than 1% of non-free apps are profitable.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm glad you asked. It's easy to calculate what the average is for those who aren't in the top 1,000.
$70 billion 2.2 million current apps gives 31k per app per 9 years. say 3.5 k per year. Now you have to deduct for apps that used to be in the store but are no more, so let's be generous and say the rate of attrition is 50% over the last 9 years (it's probably much higher). That means the average app makes $1.75 k per year.
So let's be nice again, and say that the top 1,000 apps take 90% of the revenue (it's probably much more). That leaves the 4.4 million apps (we have to include those that are no longer there, remember?) to split $7 billion over 9 years, or $1,509 each over 9 years, which works out to $176 a year.
So, how many apps does the average app developer have to crank out to make $10 an hour ($20,800 per year) for a 40 hour week (260 days, no 2 weeks holiday for YOU!) You would need to crank out 118 apps in 260 working 8-hour days in a year..That's more than 2 apps a day. With no money left for overhead, income tax, etc., and no time or budget for promoting your app or support.
Most app devs are either suckers or they've got a customer who is a sucker.
And remember, this is an average. Half will be making less than $10 an hour pumping out 118 apps a year.
Are you saying you aren't good enough to to write an App that can attain that hypothetical Top 1,000?
Re: (Score:2)
Well, it's not just the App. There's the promotion, support, etc. It certainly takes more than one person to do that for an app in the top 1,000. No matter how good it is, if it isn't promoted properly it won't be going anywhere, and crappy support will kill it quickly. :-)
Plus, I hate the whole "App Mania." It's a huge diversion of resources that could be better deployed elsewhere. I've spent the last month doing flood disaster relief work, and I've seen firsthand how what I do, along with everyone else,
Re: (Score:2)
Well, how can I make a decent snarky reply, when you have already obviously outclassed me?
Good on you, seriously.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh come one, you know I LIVE for when people snark me :-) You can do it! I have faith in you.
On a more serious note, the whole Apps mania is just another sign of the shift that has made software development "not fun" any more. Long ago, the thrill was in developing something that was useful or entertaining in its' own right, there wasn't this hysterical drive to monetize asap and walk away (serial entrepreneur now is just another term for huckster).
Things really started for fall apart with the "we must ha
This is why Blackberry lost the smartphone wars (Score:5, Interesting)
When I was at RIM, the iPhone 4 came out with one of the benefits for buyers was the extensive library of apps that were available for download. The iPhone SDK was free or a very nominal cost. To develop an app for the Blackberry at the time required an expensive SDK as well as a costly testing process to make sure the app met their standards.
RIM at the time (and I talked about this with very senior executives) made it clear that the way Apple was doing would destroy Apple as professionals wouldn't want something which had unvetted and, to their eye, silly apps.
Re:This is why Blackberry lost the smartphone wars (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
We talking about Apple or RIM?
Yes
Re: (Score:2)
the mass market is what won things for Apple.
By "won" you mean a 13% market share? Which is more or less where BBRY was a couple years ago.
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it still amazes me how fanbois are so proud of being ripped off by Apple, who overprice their phone so much that they make a $400 profit per device while other manufacturer make $20 on vastly superior hardware.
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Re: (Score:2)
Ohh, you and your charset are so edgy.
YoY?!? (Score:2)
I am unfamiliar with YoY as a term and had to google it.
All I could think was "Zoidberg is happy!"
Re: (Score:2)
Obviously, it means "Your own yoyo".
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I'm a tech in the education sector with a background in science (geology). I specialize in large format graphics and on-the-ground tech support for an implant print shop. I have no need to learn business at this time. Woop woop woop!
And Apple earned $30 billion (Score:2)
Since Apple takes 30% from AppStore sales.
Re: How many billions for the IRS????? (Score:2)
Less than Apple makes in 6 months (Score:1)
Year Over Year (Score:2)
Nuf Sed.
More spin to hide the nosedive (Score:3)
They used to say: Apple sells the most smartphones. Then it was: Apple users spend the most time per session. Then it was: Apple makes the most money per phone. Now they use app store numbers to claim success. What's next? Number of iPhones seen at Starbucks?
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong. Samsung is more profitable than Apple, even if they don't make a $400 profit per phone.
Next time you buy an iPhone, just think of that. 2/3 of the price tag goes straight in Apple's huge pile of cash, for no reason other than you accepting to be separated from your money. This whole process is called a wealth transfer from the idiots to the wealthy.
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Wrong. Samsung is more profitable than Apple, even if they don't make a $400 profit per phone.
From Yonhap News [yonhapnews.co.kr] dated 2017/06/04:
According to the data compiled by Strategy Analytics, Samsung Electronics took up 12.9 percent of the combined operating profit posted by global players by posting US$1.57 billion in earnings over the January-March period, down 21.9 percent from a year earlier.
Samsung's archrival Apple Inc., on the other hand, posted an operating profit of $10.1 billion over the cited period, accounting for a whopping 83.4 percent of the global industry, a gain from 79.8 percent posted last year.
Re: (Score:2)
That's because you do some cherry picking to make Apple look good.
Samsung actually makes a profit of around 100 billions per year. Apple makes a profit of a bit under 80 billions. Yes, Apple makes more per iPhone because they absurdly overcharge their customers, but they still make a lot less money than Samsung.
Now go ahead, and spin those numbers by made-up market segments to put Apple on the first place. That's what they've been doing for over 5 years now, although their market share keeps shrinking quart
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Samsung actually makes a profit of around 100 billions per year.
What are you smoking, and where can I get some?
Samsung had a 2016 operating profit of $26 billion USD. If you don't believe me, visit Samsung's newsroom website.
https://news.samsung.com/globa... [samsung.com]
YoY? (Score:2)
"YoY"? I understand they are happy with the result, but that is one of the strangest exclamations of joy I've ever heard, and I used to watch Ren and Stimpy. YoY!
(I know, it means "year over year", but I had to look it up.)
Advertising revenue is missing here (Score:2)
I write and publish Apps. A good chunk of the money I make on iOS & iTunes doesn't come from Apple but from advertisers like Google AdMob, Facebook Audience Network etc.
I'd love to know what chunk of the big app revenue pie is advertising revenue and not just in-app purchases?
Apple is missing from this market since it pulled out, and killed off iAds, a year ago.
It's important to remember, if you are thinking of getting into writing and publishing apps, that asking for app payments isn't the only, or mai