Unspoken app store revenue

Every year we hear interesting statistics from Apple regarding the app store. It’s quite impressive really, and they have every right to tout them. Billions sold, billions deposited into the banks of app creators, etc.

One thing that isn’t discussed very much is how much gross revenue Apple receives from their memberships. That 99 dollar fee to get in the door is something that Apple collects yearly. It’s the equivalent of selling mining equipment during the Gold Rush.

The amount of developers this year at WWDC is 5000. So pretend they all pay the 99 dollar fee, and that means that Apple gets 495,000 from just those people. They all don’t, a lot of people are there on behalf of their company that pays once, but it’s an interesting thought.

Apple mentioned today that they have 6 million developer accounts. If that means a separate company per account with a separate 99 dollar fee, we’re talking big money on a subscription. Something in the range of 594,000,000, give or take.

They don’t go on in detail about it, but it’s an interesting thing to contemplate. Some of these developer accounts probably have both Mac and IOS development subscriptions too, so that would mean 99*2, per year. It’s a drop in the bucket for most companies out to make some coin, but added up it’s not a small amount for Apple.