Apple boss Tim Cook hit Twitter on Wednesday to let everyone know the App Store is still pulling in mountains of cash.
In fact, he said July was the App Store’s best month ever in terms of revenue, which in turn meant that the total payout to developers also hit a new monthly high.
July was a record-breaker for the @AppStore! Highest-ever monthly billings and money paid to developers.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 3, 2016
On top of that, Cook revealed that the company has now paid iOS developers more than $50 billion since the App Store threw open its virtual doors in 2008.
.@AppStore developers have now earned over $50 billion! Congratulations on your success and such inspired creativity.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 3, 2016
For many developers, however, the store’s success has, ironically enough, made life harder. With so many apps available – more than 2 million, Cook revealed last month – small-time developers have been finding it increasingly difficult to get their work noticed. Meanwhile, established big names with the cash to splash on marketing have been having an easier time of it.
Keen to address concerns, Apple in June announced some major changes coming soon to the App Store. Useful not only for developers but users too, the tech giant aims to improve app discovery by removing from the Featured section any apps that a user already has on their iOS device. Considering the iPhone’s relatively small screen size, this could make a marked difference when it comes to finding new software.
In a further move that Apple hopes will encourage developers to keep cranking out work for its store, it’s tweaking the traditional 70/30 split for subscriptions where 70 percent of the revenue goes to the developer and 30 percent to Apple. Instead, it’ll switch to a more generous 85/15 split, though only when a user’s subscription extends beyond a year.
Finally, so that developers can get their work out there as quickly as possible, Apple is working to cut the review time for both new work and edited submissions. While it used to take five days before an app was accepted or rejected, half of all apps submitted now are already being dealt with within a day, with almost all of the remainder reviewed within 48 hours.
The tech giant also said at the start of the year that the App Store has so far created 1.9 million jobs in the U.S., with 1.4 million of those comprising app creators, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
Fifty billion dollars. Nearly two million jobs. Not bad for something that didn’t event exist nine years ago.
