- The App Store debuted in 2008 with 500 apps and has since transformed itself into a wildly successful ecosystem with millions of apps.
- Since 2008, Apple has paid out more than $200 billion to developers.
- While a majority of App Store apps are free, there are a handful that cost in the hundreds. The most expensive iPhone app will set you back $1,399.
There’s no need to revisit the entire history of the App Store, but it certainly goes without saying that Apple’s digital storefront completely revolutionized the way we use mobile devices and, more broadly, interact with technology. The iPhone itself was a game-changer, but the App Store, I think it’s fair to say, unlocked its full potential.
The App Store debuted with around 500 apps, a figure that has since grown to the millions. Today, the App Store is essentially its own mini-economy, with one 2019 study finding that the App Store as a whole — when you take into account both digital and physical goods — is responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars worth of commerce.
One of the bigger changes to the App Store over the years is how developers make money off of it. In the early App Store days, users would purchase an app and developers would get 70% of the purchase price. Today, it’s far more common for developers to make their app available for free and generate revenue via in-app purchases. In fact, a vast majority of the more successful apps on the App Store — with many of them being games — have been using this strategy for years now.
In light of the above, it’s only common to wonder: what’s the most expensive app on the App Store today?
Tackling this question, ScreenRant points us to iVIP Black, an app that will set you back $999.
What does iVIP Black do? Well, it provides VIP treatment at all partner venues. For example, partner hotels will give iVIP Black members complimentary room upgrades while partner hotels will provide priority booking.
Members receive VIP treatment – extra-special experiences like complimentary upgrades, surprise gifts, welcome packages, exclusive rates, priority access, and other unique privileges – across iVIP Ltd’s global range of luxury partners and services.
They include an on-demand concierge, exclusive hotels and restaurants, butlers, theatres, personal trainers, private jets, personal styling… and much more.
Partners are hand-picked. Each is specially selected by us. Membership provides members with an exciting, exotic, worldwide luxury discovery engine.
The app also provides booking opportunities for folks looking to rent private yachts and jets.
As crazy as that is, there’s actually an app even more expensive than iVIP Black. Dubbed CyberTuner, the app costs $1,399 and bills itself as “the pro piano technician’s gold standard tuning software tool for over 24 years.”
Developed over the course of three years, the app developers note that “this is a professional piano technicians’ tuning tool and is priced accordingly.”
As a final point of interest, Apple over the past twelve and a half years has paid out more than $200 billion to developers.
