Apple Says Developers Have Earned Over $70 Billion From App Store Since It Launched

So apple made 30B just by using the Developers' IP. Good.

Let's not forget they set up the entire end-to-end infrastructure to create and distribute the apps, all the way from designing and releasing the applications used to program them - and even making their own programming language to boot - hosting said apps on their servers, designing the operating system used to run the apps, and last but not least designing and producing the actual hardware devices that run them.

Let's not forget that little part.

That's crazy. Such a cool idea and then everyone else (Google, Microsoft) followed suit

Well agreed it was a good idea, though the concept of apps on a device was far from a new one, and ironically Jobs was really opposed to the App Store in the first instance. I think the original iPhone only had Safari widgets or something.

There was a lot of internal pressure from inside Apple and external pressure from developers to really open up the iPhone and let people make proper apps for it. It's great that they did it though I doubt they honestly imagined the iPhone selling nearly a million units a day within a decade either. The iPhone is such an unbelievable success story.

Weird to announce that now and not at WWDC.

I bet they'll mention it at WWDC

So apple made 30B just by using the Developers' IP. Good.

The App Store provides a lot. Keep in mind that for us developers, 30% is nothing compared to the 40-50% that a normal reseller takes.

The App Store provides a place to be seen. It means small developers who would never be found normally, now have the chance to be seen by an audience of millions. They build a market place and that has HUGE value.

Imagine you're trying to sell you hot sauce. How will your product be found? Getting your product into a big grocery chain like Costco means that millions could see and purchase it. That's what Apple is providing everyone with the App Store. Without that, these developers would just be selling it on their little websites which few would find due to their limited marketing abilities to rank well in search engines and be found.

Developers could choose to instead develop for Android and not pay those fees but Apple has created an ecosystem where people are cool with paying for good apps. Apple users spend on average 4x more than Android users. They're much more willing to pay for an app and that's hugely attractive to anyone looking to sell an app.

They also provide an easy way to update apps, advertise them, monitor sales, and many other tools that small developers wouldn't normally have access to.

Complain all you like about the 30% cut that Apple takes but the truth is that few developers are complaining. We get far more from the deal than the small fee we pay.

So apple made 30B just by using the Developers' IP. Good.

Distribution costs money and distribution on a hugely popular, walled garden ecosystem costs lots of money.

That's crazy. Such a cool idea and then everyone else (Google, Microsoft) followed suit

Including Apple, if I recall, who initially planned on having web apps serve as the primary way to consume content on iPhones. Thank Cydia for demonstrating the potential of a dedicated App Store.