Simply forward of its Worldwide Builders Convention subsequent month, Apple on Thursday announced new figures associated to the U.S. App Retailer’s monetary success. The corporate says its U.S. App Retailer ecosystem has generated $406 billion in developer billings and gross sales in 2024 — a determine that’s almost tripled in measurement since 2019, when it then generated $142 billion.
Apple additionally made some extent to notice that, for 90% of the billings and gross sales facilitated by the App Retailer, builders paid no fee.
The brand new figures come from an Apple-funded examine carried out by Professor Andrey Fradkin from Boston College Questrom College of Enterprise and economist Dr. Jessica Burley from Evaluation Group. The Evaluation Group has been working with Apple for years amid rising antitrust scrutiny to create reviews and research that showcase the App Retailer’s market energy in a extra favorable mild and as a internet constructive for builders.
Specifically, these research have burdened that solely a small sliver of Apple’s developer base even pays Apple commissions, and the vast majority of those that achieve this are on a Small Marketing strategy or different applications the place their fee is lowered from the usual 30% to fifteen%.
Nevertheless, these findings haven’t protected Apple from being pressured to open up the App Retailer to elevated competitors within the U.S.
Final month, U.S. District Decide Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dominated that Apple had violated the courtroom’s order arising from Fortnite maker Epic Video games’ lawsuit that had required Apple to reform its App Retailer’s coverage round exterior funds. Because of that ruling, Apple was pressured to let builders add hyperlinks to their app that time to internet cost choices, the place Apple isn’t allowed to take a fee.
Apple is now within the means of interesting the ruling.
The years-long struggle over App Retailer commissions has led to elevated hostility and disappointment from members of the iOS developer neighborhood, who believe that their purposes are a part of the rationale for the iPhone’s historic success. Many really feel they need to be handled with extra gratitude for his or her efforts, and never as a useful resource to extract cash from.
Apple, alternatively, staunchly believes that the App Retailer itself is the rationale for the builders’ success, because it offers {the marketplace} that permits shoppers to find new apps and simply pay for the builders’ software program and providers.
That comes by in Apple’s newest report as effectively, the place Apple notes that earnings for U.S.-based builders have greater than doubled over the past 5 years, whereas small enterprise builders have seen earnings enhance by 76% from 2021 to 2024. (The latter quantity isn’t a surprise. In 2020, Apple launched its Small Enterprise Program that lowered commissions for builders making lower than $1 million per yr. An earnings enhance is to be anticipated.)
Apple additionally reminds U.S. builders that its App Retailer permits them to succeed in a worldwide market of 175 nations and areas, and it prevents billions in fraudulent transactions. Its developer investments embrace 250,000 APIs, as a part of frameworks like HealthKit, Steel, Core ML, MapKit, and SwiftUI.
Moreover, the brand new report highlights how a lot builders are making from the App Retailer in areas the place they don’t need to pay fee.
For example, Apple says that final yr, the U.S. App Retailer ecosystem facilitated $277 billion in whole billings and gross sales from bodily items and providers, $75 billion from in-app promoting, and $53 billion from digital items and providers. It additionally notes that, since 2019, spending on bodily items and providers greater than tripled and in-app spending on digital items and providers and in-app promoting greater than doubled. Common retail spending and grocery supply elevated greater than fourfold.