App Store reached estimated $6.4 billion of Apple's revenue during 2015

After payments to developers, Apple's revenue share from the App Store during calendar 2015 was approximately $6.4 billion, according to a new analyst estimate.

"Appsumers continue to be highly engaged in the App Store ecosystem which is a long term positive for the company's future products, in our opinion," commented J.P. Morgan's Rod Hall in a memo obtained by AppleInsider.

The figure is based on an Apple annoucement from Wednesday, in which the company revealed that the public had spent $1.1 billion at the App Store in a two-week period covering Christmas and New Year's. Jan. 1 was reportedly the biggest single day in the App Store's history, with over $144 million in traffic.

Apple takes 30 percent of the revenue from App Store purchases, including in-app transactions, which would indicate that a far larger sum was distributed among third-party publishers and developers.

While the App Store is a relatively minor source of income for Apple — the J.P. Morgan estimate is less than a fifth of what Apple generated from iPhone sales in the September quarter alone — strong app sales are essential to the company's health. It depends on apps as a reason for people to buy iOS devices.

People who buy iOS apps are also more likely to be "locked" into the Apple ecosystem, since they would suddenly lose that content after switching to Android or Windows.

5 Comments

johnjohnstone 57 comments · 8 Years

About 8 years ago

So gross revenue from the App store is $22 billion a year. That is growth about 25% compared to last year.

gatorguy 24602 comments · 13 Years

Gosh, barely breaking even then. /s
;)

ericthehalfbee 4489 comments · 13 Years

Waiting for Google to release some numbers for Play Store revenues and developer payouts.

ericthehalfbee said:

Waiting for Google to release some numbers for Play Store revenues and developer payouts.

No need for numbers to know which one see better results. We already know the App Store sees about 80% more revenue than Google Play. That's even more of a gap than 12 months ago. Why? Only one word: China

gatorguy said:

ericthehalfbee said:

Waiting for Google to release some numbers for Play Store revenues and developer payouts.

No need for numbers to know which one see better results. We already know the App Store sees about 80% more revenue than Google Play. That's even more of a gap than 12 months ago. Why? Only one word: China

There's no "need" for Apple numbers either, but that hasn't stopped them from bragging about them.

Remember when Google used to brag about Android activation numbers and how many per day they were getting? I can't remember the last time I heard them make such an announcement. Likewise with Samsung Galaxy S sales, which they stopped reporting since the S4.