Apple’s App Store has been a massive success story for Apple over the last 4 years and according to research firm Canalys it will generate $36 billion in revenue by 2015.
Apple’s App store is the market-leader for digital distribution of software applications and this is mainly down the fact that it is stocked plentifully with a amazing array of apps.
According to reports, Apple is expected to make $7.3 billion from its App store in 2011.
Google Android Market, on the other hand, made a paltry $102 million in 2010. But it’s not all gloom and doom as their market place grew by 861% in 2010 – this shows quite how big Apple store really is.
“The overwhelming number of apps on the Apple App Store and Android Marketplace,” says Venture Beat, “might prove too daunting for consumers.”
We think this is way off the mark as Apple’s dominance comes from the sheer diversity of app and the quality control that Apple has stringently employed from day one.
The way Apple makes money from the App store isn’t rocket science as they have employed a successful profit share where the developer take 70% of the App fee and Apple banks the rest, 30%.
Couple this with the sheer volume of handsets and tablets Apple is shipping and you’ve got a practically unlimited source of revenue that’s showing no sign of dissipating anytime soon.
There are a whopping 425,000 apps on the App Store, which according to Venture Beat, have been downloaded more than 14 billion times in three years.
But it’s not just Apple that’s making a mint from its App Store, the developers are too – Apple paid out $2.5 billion to developers over the last couple of years.
Obviously this figure will increase as the numbers of applications do, but it’ll be interesting to see how the rise of Android, Windows Phone 7 and webOS affect Apple’s market dominance.