Apple is celebrating ten billion app downloads with a contest. Download app number 10,000,000,000 and receive a $10,000 iTunes gift card. That's a helluva lotta movies, music, and software.
But folks like us are more interested in units, sales rates, and revenues, that kind of thing.
Last June, Jobs bragged about having paid developers over a billion dollars for over 5 billion app downloads. A billion paid to developers means that the app store grossed at least $1.43 billion, or about $0.29 per download. That money is supplemented by an unknown amount of in-app advertising revenue.
Seven months later, the app total has doubled. If all other ratios remain the same, that means another $1.43 billion grossed, and another $1 billion paid to developers. Apps are moving at a rate of over 700 million per month, generating revenues of around $200 million per month. At rates like that, it's not hard to imagine that with only modest growth, the App Store will move another ten billion apps by the end of the calendar year.
It's not known how much of all that money is being made by games. Title counts show that roughly 1/3 of all apps in the store are games, while roughly 2/3 of all titles in the top grossing list are games. If I were to take a stab in the dark, I'd guess about 50-60% of those revenues are going to game developers.
"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event." — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.
