Apple customers spent over $10 billion on the App Store in 2013, confirming the company's mobile business model for native apps. As of right now, the company plans to keep $3 billion, leaving the various iOS developers to have earned the remaining $7 billion.
According to InformationWeek, Apple reports that, in December, it sold more than $1 billion apps along. This marks the most revenue generated in a single month since the App Store's opening back in July of 2008.
Apple said its iOS developers have earned roughly $15 billion to date, that is after Apple takes its 30 percent cut. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, if you were to look at Apple's App Store in a list of gross revenue among publically traded companies, it would rank 238th between Public Service Enterprise Group and Sherwin-Williams.
For Apple, $3 billion is a drop in the bucket. The company generated $171 billion in the fiscal 2013, with $37 billion of pure profit. Right now appears to be a good time for developers on iOS. According to Business Insider, last month, Android app developers earned $0.90 for every $1 made by iOS app developers.
According to InformationWeek, all that money is not being evenly distrivuted among developers. The top developers collected the majority of the App Store revenue. Asymco analyst Horace Dediu estimates that iOS developer payments amount to $25 million per day. Thus, daily App Store gross revenue should be about $35 million. However, according to research firm Distimo, the top 200 applications in the iOS App Store account for combined gross revenues of about $18 million per day. So roughly half of the App Store revenue goes to the top 200 apps and the rest is apparently distributed among the developers of the million other apps available on the App Store.
Apps will still be a great place for young entrepreneurs to make a fortune, but as analytics firm Flurry recently noted, the gold-rush days have ended.
"There will still be apps that tap into some vein of consumer interest or amusement and developers who strike it rich as a consequence," the firm noted in a blog post. "But overall, the successful developers in 2014 and beyond will be those who put in the hard work of identifying a target group of users, creating apps that work well for them, and continually refining and reinventing mobile experiences to profitably retain those users."
