Apple Reports $1.7 Billion In Billings For App Store In July

Apple just published figures pertaining to the growth of its App Store, and the numbers are pretty impressive. The iPhone maker revealed that it had its biggest volume of transacting customers with more than $1.7 billion in billings during the month of July this year. The company also added that it set new records for the Chinese market, too, which made up the biggest percentage of transacting customers. This strongly suggests that China really does have a major impact on the success of Apple’s mobile app environment and developer community.

As of now, Apple has already spent a total of $33 billion paying various App Store developers, and $8 billion of that total amount was for this year alone. Quite an achievement, considering that more than a year ago, the company claimed it had spent $20 billion paying App Store developers. 

And considering that the App Store now has more than 1.5 million mobile apps and games available for download, it is rather remarkable that there is some growth in the number of new mobile app releases. Developers do not seem to be worried about their new apps having difficulty catching some attention amid the millions of other mobile apps already displayed in the App Store.

As mentioned earlier, China has played a significant role in boosting Apple’s mobile app environment. For instance, back in April earlier this year, China has surpassed the United States in terms of being the prominent source of app downloads for the iOS mobile operating system, at least according to a report published by App Annie. 

Of course, big credit goes to the rapidly increasing number of iPhone users in the Chinese market. Chinese mobile users clearly favor handsets with large display screen sizes, and Apple’s current flagship devices, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, certainly fit into that category. But why do the Chinese prefer big screened smartphones? It all comes down to their mobile first nature -- most people living in China just prefer to complete their tasks using their smartphones instead of using tablets, laptops, or even desktop computers.

Apple, for its part, made some serious effort to make their iPhones as easily accessible as possible to Chinese mobile users. For example, the company really boosted its retail presence in China, expanding to 19 stores by April of this year (there were only 8 in China as of October 2013). Apple is now looking at expanding its stores to 40 locations across mainland China by the middle of next year.