Android might have more apps and a lot more users than iOS these days, but it’s still trailing far behind when it comes to making money for developers. Last quarter, the App Store made twice as much money than Google Play for app makers.
Apple has scheduled its next earnings call for Tuesday, July 26, at 2 p.m. Pacific. The call, which will be broadcast live, will cover the company’s third fiscal quarter results following the first-ever decline in iPhone sales last quarter.
You’ve probably heard it’s hard to make money in the App Store, but not for a small few. Last quarter, a staggering 94 percent of App Store revenue generated in the U.S. went to just the top 1 percent of app publishers, according to new data.
Apple may have quaffed all the champagne at the $1 trillion in revenue party before Microsoft even got its invite, but the Windows maker rocked up in a bigger limo.
Last quarter, Microsoft finally reached the major milestone that Apple celebrated back in 2015, and it currently boasts even more profit.
The labels may have resisted music streaming early on, but Warner Music Group will be grateful it’s big business today.
So big, in fact, that thanks to services like Apple Music and Spotify, streaming music just raked in more revenue than anything else last quarter.
Apple’s 13 years of astonishing growth is likely to come to a close today, with the company predicted to report its first quarterly revenue decline since 2003 — well before the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch were even faint glimmers in Apple execs’ eyes.
The company is expected to reveal that March quarter sales fell 10 percent year-over-year to around $52 billion. Apple first warned that sales would fall in its forecast back in January, although today we’ll find out the extent of that slide.
Nintendo fans bemoaned the company’s decision not to use Mario or Link or Donkey Kong in its first smartphone game, but it seems Miitomo is doing perfectly well without famous faces.
According to new estimates, the social app is currently raking in a whopping $280,000 every single week.
Android has reportedly earned Google $31 billion since the mobile operating system’s inception, according to a stat revealed during the company’s ongoing court battle with Oracle.
Android’s massive lead in market share is translating into a staggering number of app downloads, with Google Play serving 85 percent more apps than the App Store during the second quarter of 2015. But despite that, iOS is holding onto a significant lead where it matters most — in revenue.
When it comes to app downloads, China and Mexico surged in the first fiscal quarter of 2015, says a report by the mobile analysts at App Annie.
China took the top spot for iOS downloads while Mexico now ranks among the top five countries for Google Play downloads, surpassing South Korea this quarter.
While we’ve seen Google Play lead the number of downloads across the globe and iOS facing a shrinking lead in revenue, Q1 2015 showed a huge jump for iOS in terms of revenue, to the tune of about 70 percent more (up from 60 percent higher in Q3 2014). Google Play continues to be top dog in downloads, though, with 70 percent more downloads than Apple’s digital storefront.
It’s tough at the top.
Mobile video game publisher Rovio Entertainment detailed Thursday its first revenue drop since the Finnish company hit it big with the Angry Birds franchise in 2009.
Perhaps the saturation of the market with no less than 11 Angry Birds-themed games since then (and three spin-offs) and way too many toys and animation projects has something to do with the loss of revenue, down 9 percent to $170.6 million in 2014.
Of course, as Rovio’s mobile gaming business did rise a bit (16 percent), making the overall drop in revenue that more incredible, the company seems to be focused on doubling-down on its mobile game offerings.
“2014 results show that steps in the game portfolio, free to play competency building and advertising are going in the right direction. I am confident that with new simplified organisation and clearer vision, we will be back to the path of growth in 2015,” said CEO Pekka Rantala in a statement.
Microsoft announced $24.52 billion in revenue the second quarter this year, showing gains across all segments of its consumer technology business, including Surface, Xbox, and Bing search.
As a previous heavy competitor and sometime collaborator with Apple, Microsoft hasn’t been doing as well in the post-PC era. It’s interesting that the company is defying expectations on the eve of CEO Steve Ballmer’s run at the company, with growth across the board, except in PC sales, of course.
Forget for a moment all the talk about Apple’s recent quarter financials disappointing Wall Street analysts — and instead focus on two “nuggets” from Apple’s recently released 88-page Form 10-K, as picked up by ISI’s Brian Marshall.
In a note to clients sent Thursday, Marshall notes that not only is Apple’s $11 billion in projected capital expenditures for fiscal 2014 a double-digit increase for a company already “the single largest CapEx spender” in his “Big 7 Hyperscale group”, but also that Apple generates “off-the-charts” revenue-per-head metric compared to the other IT and networking companies he covers — which includes Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), eBay (EBAY), Facebook (FB) and Yahoo (YHOO).
Google stock has risen 13% today, surpassing $1,000 for the first time ever. It comes a day after the search giant announced its earnings for last quarter, which beat Wall Street expectations thanks to a surge in mobile and video advertising that helped increase quarterly revenue by 23%.
Google Play has made up a lot of ground on the App Store over the past couple months in terms of downloads and revenue, but the latest mobile marketplace report shows that Apple is still king of the castle when it comes to revenue.
Despite “weaker” orders from Apple during the second quarter, Foxconn managed to post revenue that beat analyst estimates thanks to its increased focus on televisions. The company announced revenue of NT$897 billion ($30 million) over the three-month period, which is 0.6% higher than its second-quarter revenue for 2012, and better than the NT$829 billion expected by analysts.
Google’s YouTube apps for Android and iOS have helped the company triple advertising sales on mobile in the past six months, the company has said. Mobile ads now contribute an estimated $350 million to YouTube’s revenue, with around a quarter of the site’s 1 billion users accessing videos on smartphones and tablets.
Samsung has today announced its estimated earnings for Q1 2013, and it looks like the Korean electronics giant is set for another record quarter, exceeding Wall Street expectations. The company has forecast a 53% rise in profit to 8.7 trillion won ($7.7 billion) for the three-month period between January and March, driven by smartphone sales.
Ad impressions reached a record high during the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data from Opera’s latest State of Mobile Advertising report, with revenue to publishers more than twice that of any previous quarter throughout the year. The figures show that Android continues to increase its share of the market, but it’s got a long way to go before it topples iOS, which boasts a whopping 41.91% share.
Apple stock opened at $457.70 this morning, down more than 10%, following its financial results on Wednesday. The Cupertino company announced $13.1 billion profit for the first quarter of 2013, a slight increase over the $13.06 billion it posted for the first quarter of 2012. But despite that increase, it’s clear Apple’s phenomenal growth has hit a stumbling block.
The future of Microsoft’s SkyDrive service on iOS looks bleak today as the company appears to have entered into a fight with Apple over its 30% cut of App Store revenues. Microsoft recently gave iOS users the ability to upgrade their SkyDrive subscriptions from their iPhones and iPads, but until the company agrees to give Apple a 30% cut of the in-app purchases, it won’t get any future updates approved.
A critical bug fix that prevents the app from crashing has now had to be placed on hold. Should Apple’s rules be a little more flexible in certain cases?
Apple’s App Store has been the undisputed revenue king since its inception, however, its once enormous lead is now quickly shrinking. That leading edge over Android is an argument that’s becoming moot as the Play’s revenue continues to grow at a ravenous rate. According to App Annie, an industry leader in app store analytics and marketing, Google Play’s revenues have skyrocketed 311% in the last year, compared to the App Store’s more conservative 12.9%.
For those of us watching the trial of Apple vs Samsung this week, the fact that Judge Lucy Koh made the companies reveal confidential sales data is something of a no-brainer. The jury will need to look at the sales of the various devices from the two mobile technology giants to decide at some point what the damages should be, if any.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer presented the results of the company’s spring 2012 quarter. The quarter included extensive growth for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac product lines though iPod sales declined 10% from the same quarter a year ago.
Here are the financial numbers delivered during the call.
Apple is set to announce its quarterly earnings today and host a conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, so naturally, analysts have been making last minute predictions about what they think today’s results may bring.
To make sense of all these predictions, Phillip Elmer-Dewitt has compiled a list of predications from 68 analysts over at CNNMoney. The results? Divided expectations.
