In a press release touting the company’s burgeoning services division, Apple said that its suite of services — which includes Apple Music, Apple News, and the App Store — enjoyed a record-breaking year in 2019. So while some tech pundits have been pessimistic about Apple’s ability to succeed in the face of slowing iPhone sales, the company’s balance sheet proves otherwise. Indeed, Apple for some time has boasted that its services business alone is about the size of a Fortune 100 company.
“2019 was the biggest year for Services in Apple’s history,” Apple executive Eddy Cue said.
The App Store, in particular, saw tremendous growth over the past 12 months. To this point, Apple notes that iOS customers spent a record $1.42 billion on apps between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, good enough for a 16% increase year over year. What’s more, iOS customers spent $386 million on the App Store on New Years Day alone, marking a brand new single-day record.
Apple’s press release reads in part:
The App Store is the world’s safest and most vibrant app marketplace, with over half a billion people visiting each week. It remains the safest place for users to find software and provides developers of all sizes access to customers in 155 countries. Since the App Store launched in 2008, developers have earned over $155 billion, with a quarter of those earnings coming from the past year alone.
The notion that 25% of all App Store revenue has come in the last year is absolutely mind-boggling.
Though Apple’s financial well-being over the past decade hinged almost exclusively on iPhone sales, the company today has a much more diverse revenue stream. Services aside, Apple’s wearables division continues to grow by leaps and bounds, thanks in large part to the Apple Watch and staggering demand for AirPods.
