Bumper December helps Apple top $10bn in app sales in 2013
APPLE said yesterday that its customers spent $1bn (£610m) on purchases in its applications store in December, leading to a total of $10bn worth of apps sold in 2013.
Apple reported that almost three billion apps were downloaded in December, making it a record month for the store, which offers one million apps for the firm’s devices.
It competes with devices based on Google’s Android system and phones and tablets based on Microsoft software.
Some of the app store’s biggest successes were popular games, including Candy Crush Saga, Puzzles & Dragons, Minecraft and QuizUp.
But Apple said there had also been some surprise hits, like chat show host Ellen DeGeneres’ Heads Up and image editing app Afterlight.
“The lineup of apps for the holiday season was astonishing and we look forward to seeing what developers create in 2014,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.