Apple Making Money From App Store

[DavieBoy]

With the announcement that the app store has 15,000 apps and 500 million downloads I wondered how much money apple has made off of the apps that I purchased....

So I did a simple count and calculation, Answer: about $33

I have spent $93 on 3rd party apps, = $27.90 apple' cut. (30%)

Plus I got Texas Hold Em for $5

Im just curious on what you guys have spent, and how much apple has made off of it....

 

[kas23]

Be aware that some people will download any type of app if its free. I have seen some paid apps go "on sale" for free. I don't care what these apps are (as long as they are not fart apps - I'm against these), I'll be grabbing them. You never know which way the wind will blow later on.

As for a money value, unfortunately I haven't been keeping track, but it couldn't be over $40 total.

 

[Ashyukun]

Well, with 500 million apps sold, if you assume a 4 : 1 ratio of free : paid app downloads (no clue if this is accurate, I'm just pulling numbers out of my ass...) and that each paid app is $.99, the total amount paid out would be (tax aside...) $495 million- and with Apple's 30% cut, they'd have made at least $148.5 million- likely a good bit more since while a number of apps are just $.99 some of the most popular- like FieldRunners- are more. Not bad at all for just 2/3 of a year...

 

[kas23]

Well, with 500 million apps sold, if you assume a 4 : 1 ratio of free : paid app downloads (no clue if this is accurate, I'm just pulling numbers out of my ass...) and that each paid app is $.99, the total amount paid out would be (tax aside...) $495 million- and with Apple's 30% cut, they'd have made at least $148.5 million- likely a good bit more since while a number of apps are just $.99 some of the most popular- like FieldRunners- are more. Not bad at all for just 2/3 of a year...

Those numbers look about right. A 4:1 ratio of freeaid looks good (maybe a little bit higher). I would also say that 90% of paid apps downloaded are $0.99.

 

[neiltc13]

Apple makes nowhere close to 30% profit on App sales. The cost of R&D for the iPhone Software Development Kit alone will knock it down significantly and the hardware required to run the App Store will also be expensive to operate.

 

[Ashyukun]

Apple makes nowhere close to 30% profit on App sales. The cost of R&D for the iPhone Software Development Kit alone will knock it down significantly and the hardware required to run the App Store will also be expensive to operate.

Doubtless true- but that 30% is revenue coming in, so it is money they're making. Profits are obviously something different altogether...

 

[DavieBoy]

Doubtless true- but that 30% is revenue coming in, so it is money they're making. Profits are obviously something different altogether...

Both good thoughts, it must cost loot to run that store...

I bet that somewhere between 300 and 400 million apps downloaded are free, people just like downloading apps. Glad I got over that. I do however download alot of apps because they are free for a limited time. Runner logger pro yea i will use that...ha

 

[firewood]

Apple makes nowhere close to 30% profit on App sales. The cost of R&D for the iPhone Software Development Kit alone will knock it down significantly and the hardware required to run the App Store will also be expensive to operate.

Given that most apps are a lot smaller (to host & download) than the average song, the marginal costs to Apple of adding iPhone apps to their iTunes Music/Movie/TVshow/etc. store might be only a rounding error in size.

.