It was 15 years ago to the date when Apple released the App Store on July 10, 2008, ahead of copycat competition and arguably ahead of its time. Launching with a mere 500 applications, the App Store witnessed downloads of more than 10 million apps in just one week.
What it did was to create a market for third-party developers to attract new iPhone buyers and enthusiasts by unlocking the creative minds of coders and developers across the globe using games, music, media, and product sales to communicate with millions of people.
According to an Apple study it commissioned, Apple apps were downloaded 370 billion times in the past 15 years, earning developers no less than $320 billion in the process. Nearly 650 million weekly visitors were drawn to the App Store last year, Apple revealed.
Developers earned $60 billion in 2022 alone assisted by the fact that the App Store introduced on Jan 1, 2021, the Small Business Program, reducing Apple’s commission from 30 to 15 percent for developers making under $1 million per year.
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Ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), the Analysis Group released a report showing Apple’s App Store enabling over $1.1 trillion in billings and sales in 2022 alone, double 2019 figures when the total was estimated at $519 billion. Netherlands’ economy had a GDP of $993.7 billion in 2022.
The majority of these revenues, nearly 81 percent, arrived via the sale of physical goods and services that were facilitated by the App Store. A main driver of this was the recovery in demand in sectors such as travel, up 84 %, while video conferencing contributed with a 45% increase in sales.
“The App Store is a vibrant, innovative marketplace where opportunity thrives, and we’re as committed as ever to investing in developers’ success and the app economy’s future,” Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said in a press release.
Given an average rate anywhere between 15 and 25 percent, Apple is likely to have generated from $10 to $25 billion in App Store commission fees in 2022.
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