Tag Archives: App Store

Crazy App Store Numbers: $10 Billion Revenue in 2013

by on in iPad App Store

App Store

Apple announced some huge numbers yesterday for the App Store. Crazy big numbers in fact:

– Customers spent over $10 billion in the App Store in 2013

– Over $1 billion was spent last December alone

– Almost 3 billion apps were downloaded in December, which was the most successful month in App Store history.

Jon Gruber adds some useful perspective on how striking this is:

Interesting comparison to today’s App Store announcement. Apple’s retail stores, which the company started in 2001 and which sell hardware costing thousands of dollars a pop, generate $20 billion in annual revenue. The App Store, which started in 2008 and predominantly sells apps costing a few bucks a pop, is already at $10 billion in annual revenue.

These are incredible numbers and it’s still a little amazing to see the momentum and impact of mobile apps. I know I’ve done my share to contribute to those crazy figures – to the tune of hundreds and hundreds of iOS apps purchased.

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The App Store’s App of the Year: Disney Animated

by on in iPad Apps

App Store Best of 2013

Apple has published their App Store  ‘Best of 2013’ selections and the Disney Animated iPad app has been chosen as App of the Year. Here’s the brief text endorsing the selection:

This enchanting tour of Disney’s legendary film vault awes with a bounty of animated sequences , interactive character models, and a spellbinding presentation.

Badland is the choice for Game of the Year:

With haunting visuals and great controls, Frogmind’s side-scroller is an absolute joy. Alone or with friends, you’ll love overcoming each brilliantly designed challenge.

Runners up in the App and game categories are Traktor DJ and WWF Together (Apps) and XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Impossible Road (games).

I think Disney Animated is a very good choice; I know my daughter has spent huge amounts of time with it and loves it to bits. WWF Together is another excellent choice.

You can see the selections now in the App Store Featured section, and also check out Apple’s picks for movies, music and more in the iTunes store.

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PSA: Paypal IS an Accepted Payment Method – Even if the App Store Says It Isn’t

by on in iPad App Store

App Store Paypal

If you’ve ever used Paypal as your payment method for the App Store / iTunes you may have noticed that Apple seems to have quite a serious vendetta going against Paypal. I’ve used Paypal as my payment method since the very beginning of the App Store and several times over the years the iTunes Store has hit me with messages and roadblocks suggesting that Paypal was ‘not an accepted payment method’.

Well, I’m here to tell you that is nonsense. Paypal has always been an accepted method and it still is now.

This morning I had one of these occasions where the App Store got its knickers in a twist – apparently because there was some issue with payment for an In-App purchase I made recently. For some reason the payment did not clear successfully with Paypal. My balance in Paypal is always far larger than needed to cover any iTunes purchases – so I imagine on that particular day the App Store was just unable to hit the Paypal authorization server or some such circumstance. In any case, I never received any sort of notification of a failed purchase at all – from the ITunes store or Paypal.

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App Store Near a Million Apps, Over 400K iPad Apps?

by on in iPad App Store

iPad App Store

The App Store is heading for another big milestone – one million apps. And apps designed for the iPad now account for more than one third of those available in the App Store, despite the iPad being released nearly two years after the App Store opened.

The last announced numbers from Apple, back on their Q3 earnings call, were 900,000 apps total and 375,00 iPad apps.  Appsfire.com recently tweeted that the store had hit the 950,000 apps mark – and Appshopper.com shows 953,218 available apps as I type this.

One million apps will be a notable milestone for the App Store. 500,000 iPad apps will be a big one for the iPad as well – and I imagine that’s not far off. We should see a new iPads Apple event next month and I’m sure we’ll get plenty of detail on all these big numbers.

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