DUBLIN: Apple customers’ App Store spending jumped 40 per cent in 2016 fuelled by games such as Pokémon Go and Super Mario Run to provide a much-needed boost to services revenues, at a time when iPhone growth remains sluggish.
Payments to app developers, after Apple took its cut, rose to more than $20 billion (€19 billion) last year, the company said on Thursday, with growth accelerating in China.
“2016 was a record-shattering year for the App Store,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice-president of worldwide marketing.
In recent months, Apple has put a spotlight on revenues from online services such as the App Store, iCloud and Apple Music, in order to counterbalance concerns on Wall Street about the iPhone, which saw its first ever drop in sales last year.
Yet even as its unit sales declined, the total number of people who own and use an Apple device has continued to grow, sustaining the App Store’s momentum.
Developers, who split app revenues 70:30 with Apple in most cases, have seen their overall income rise by at least 40 per cent in each of the past three years. App makers’ total income from the App Store is now more than $60 billion since it was launched in 2008, which analysts say exceeds industry earnings from Google Play, the Android app store.
