One number in Apple’s results indicates significant year over year growth, and it’s a number that’s vital to the continued success of the platform – the company announced that it paid out $2 billion to developers during its fiscal Q1 2014, which is a record number and also between three and four times what it paid devs during the same period last year.
The growth for developer revenue is increasing at a very rapid pace – for all of 2013, the software store paid out $10 billion in total, which means that it’s on pace this year to far exceed that already. It’s a reflection that despite the fact that many critics suggest the App Store has a discovery problem, it’s still the best place for anyone building mobile products to make money.
The App Store’s shift to apps that predominantly feature in-app purchases is a possible explainer for the growth rate, as well as there simply being more devs on the platform. A recent survey shows that the App store now derives 92 percent of its revenue from free apps with in-app purchases, compared to just 4 percent from paid apps and another 4 percent from paid apps with in-app purchases.
Whatever the case, Apple still clearly dwarfs Google Play when it comes to paying out money to devs, and that doesn’t look likely to change any time soon.