Apple has rung in the new year with a record week of sales in their App Store. The first week of January saw a new record of nearly $500,000 spent on Apps and in-app purchases, while New Years Day 2015 was the single biggest day in App Store sales history.
The milestones come hot on the heels of a record breaking 2014 for the App Store, which saw billings raise 50%, with apps generating over $10 billion in revenue for developers.
“This year is off to a tremendous start after a record-breaking year for the App Store and our developer community,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “We’re so proud of the creativity and innovation developers bring to the apps they create for iOS users and that the developer community has now earned over $25 billion.”
App Store customers showed excellent support for the Apps for (RED) initiative over the holidays, which featured exclusive content whose proceeds all went to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. Apple donated a record-shattering $20 million this quarter, and since partnering with (RED) has donated over $100 million.
Apple noted the introduction of new programming language Swift, which debuted alongside iOS 8, as well as the introduction of new frameworks HealthKit and HomeKit, helped fuel developer innovation in the App Store.
Apple’s new Metal graphics technology, created to maximize the performance of Apple’s A7 and A8 processors, was embraced by game developers around the globe.
Apple’s new mobile payments initiative, Apple Pay, was also embraced by merchants and developers, including Walgreens, Disney, HotelTonight, and Ticketmaster.
