It was a mammoth holiday season for apps of all kinds as Apple continued its trend of breaking holiday sales records. In the last two weeks of December and early January, customers of the company's App Store spent roughly $1.1 billion on apps and in-app purchases. New Year's Day set records for the company with customers spending over $144 million.
Across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV, consumers spent over $20 billion on the App Store last year, according to Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller. Last year's figure is up about $5 billion from 2014. In 2014, the App Store reported total sales of about $10 billion. Schiller also noted that globally, the App Store has brought in nearly $40 billion for developers since 2008 — a third of that came just in the last year.
As it did last year, Apple released this sales data alongside data that boasts that the App Store and its developers have become a major engine for economic growth. According to the company, "Apple is now responsible for creating and supporting 1.9 million jobs in the U.S. alone." Last year, the company released stats suggesting that iOS apps created "1.2 million jobs in Europe and 1.4 million jobs in China."
But, economic claims aside, I think we can all agree that $1.1 billion in two weeks is a lot of apps.