Apple Says App Store Saw Record Revenue, Customer Transactions in July

Tuesday August 5, 2014 10:11 am PDT by Juli Clover

app_store_icon_ios_7 July was a record-setting month for App Store revenue, according to Apple, seeing both record revenue numbers and a record number of customers making transactions. The company revealed the news to CNBC.

Apple's app store saw record-setting revenue numbers in July, the company told CNBC.

The Cupertino-based company also said that its app store saw a record number of customers making transactions.

During the company's recent financial results call covering the third fiscal quarter of 2014, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that iTunes software and services were the fastest growing part of Apple's business during the quarter that ended in June. iTunes billings grew 25 percent year over year to an all time quarterly high, and Apple saw iTunes revenue of $4.5 billion, largely due to the continued success of the App Store.

As of June, Apple has had 75 billion cumulative App Store downloads, paying out a total of $20 billion to developers, with $5 billion paid in 2014 alone. According to app-tracking site AppShopper, there are 1,211,461 apps available in the App Store, including over 1 million iPhone apps and 610,000 iPad apps. Apple also has more than 21,000 Mac apps available in the Mac App Store.

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Top Rated Comments

mw360

159 months ago

Not sure exactly what you mean. If you mean that the developers are only making $5,000 per app per year, I think you need to go beyond averages, and look at this:

* Some developers are making far less than that, because people don't find value in their apps.
* Some developers are making a whole bunch more than that, because their apps are the ones selling on the store.
* Some developers make their money on advertising, which doesn't show up in Apple's numbers.

I don't mean a whole bunch by it, but it's illuminating. Especially when you see some of the malicious or petulant garbage that app store 'reviewers' will write about $1 apps.

I think Apple are still keen to foster the illusion of a gold rush, but its long over. Just the way their search function can only show one app at a time. It's almost as if, like casinos, they're trying to promote a big winner do draw in thousands of losers.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

rdlink

159 months ago

$5,000 per app per year? That's no way to make a living.

Not sure exactly what you mean. If you mean that the developers are only making $5,000 per app per year, I think you need to go beyond averages, and look at this:

* Some developers are making far less than that, because people don't find value in their apps.
* Some developers are making a whole bunch more than that, because their apps are the ones selling on the store.
* Some developers make their money on advertising, which doesn't show up in Apple's numbers.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Dulcimer

159 months ago

And to think that Apple didn't want the App Store in the first place....

Steve Jobs didn't want it in the first place. There were other Apple employees that pushed for it though.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

MacsRgr8

159 months ago

And to think that Apple didn't want the App Store in the first place....

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

EricTheHalfBee

159 months ago

Or is being paid to create apps that are free and have no ads,

Plus where did the $5000 figure come from? I can only assume someone did 5,000,000,000/1,211,461 = 4127, but the 1.2m apps weren't all bought last year?

Bingo. At least someone's thinking.

There are countless businesses that would like to have an App for their customers to use. The most obvious ones would be banks who provide an App free of charge for their customers to use to pay bills, check their balance and so on. Larger companies/organizations (like banks, CC companies, schools, sports teams) would have full time developers dedicated to mobile App development.

Smaller companies/organizations aren't going to employ a full-time developer - they're going to hire someone like me (who works part time for an App development company). There are a LOT of App developers like me who make decent money developing Apps for other people.

I don't know why people always assume Apps are only created by individuals who are making next to nothing. Or that there are "zombie Apps" that have few downloads and never make the charts (like that one famous study those idiots recently did) implying that nobody makes money on them.

Open your eyes people, there are lots of Apps you will never hear about unless you walk into a local small business and see a sign that says "Now available on The App Store". Someone got paid to develop that App and just because it's not making money (or the best-selling charts) doesn't mean time was wasted making it.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)