Apple today released 2014 numbers for the company’s App Store, revealing that more than $10 billion in revenue was paid out to developers during the year, a record that brings the cumulative total to $25 billion since the store’s launch in 2008. On top of that, the company revealed that 2015 is already off to a good start, with New Year’s Day taking the single-day App Store sales record.
“This year is off to a tremendous start after a record-breaking year for the App Store and our developer community,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “We're so proud of the creativity and innovation developers bring to the apps they create for iOS users and that the developer community has now earned over $25 billion.”
Apple attributed the financial success of the store to key iOS-exclusive technologies of which developers have begun to take advantage, including Swift, Metal, HomeKit, HealthKit, and TestFlight. Other new App Store features such as App Bundles and App Previews were also mentioned as playing a role.
The company also took the opportunity to tout the success of Apple Pay, which in addition to letting customers safely and securely shop at physical retail locations also lets users make easy purchases from within apps. Apple specifically called attention to Apple Pay’s integration in the HotelTonight, OpenTable, Target, and TicketMaster apps.
“The response we’ve seen from HotelTonight customers since the introduction of Apple Pay has been fantastic,” said Sam Shank, CEO, HotelTonight. “Our current customer base is enjoying the convenience of Apple Pay and we’re continuing to see a growing number of new customers because of Apple Pay’s easy and secure approach to payments.”
Finally, Apple touted its role with (RED), the brand that raises money for the Global Fund to fight AIDS. Sales of the company’s (RED) products resulted in $20 million in donations to the organization, bringing Apple’s cumulative total to more than $100 million.
The App Store enters 2015 featuring more than 1.4 million apps, with more than 725,000 of those apps designed to support the iPad.