Apple’s historic 2018 by the numbers [Year in Review]

By

Apple Year in Review 2018 By the Numbers: Some of these Apple numbers are just huge.
Some of these Apple numbers are just huge.
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Cult of Mac Year in Review 2018: best Apple ads of 2018 2018 has been one of the best years ever for Apple. Looking at some of the company’s most popular metric shows that the numbers are up across the board (stock price excepted).

Never before have there been more developers making more money off iOS while Apple extends its ever-growing reach. Revenue hit an all-time high. And the next big thing feels like it’s just on the horizon.

Here’s Apple’s 2018 by the numbers.

$1 trillion market cap

Apple is unimaginably profitable
Apple is unimaginably profitable.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company to hit the coveted $1 trillion valuation. However, AAPL stock later went into a downward spiral. Now it’s worth less than Microsoft.

7,376 acres

Apple Park officially became Apple's corporate HQ in 2018
Apple Park officially became Apple’s corporate HQ in 2018.
Photo: Duncan Sinfield

7,376 acres is the total amount of land Apple owns, mostly in the United States. The new Apple Park campus occupies only 175 acres. New York’s Central Park, by comparison, is about 840 acres in size.

$100 billion

App Store developers are getting PAID
App Store developers are getting PAID!
Photo: Tim Cook

Apple paid out more than $100 billion to developers since the App Store was created 10 years ago. On average, iOS developers in San Francisco make $126,000 annually. Meanwhile, Android developers squeak by on an average of about $95,000 nationwide.

2 billion devices

We've come a long way since the original iPhone
We’ve come a long way since the original iPhone.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

How many iOS devices did Apple ship since the iPhone came out in 2007? 2 billion, that’s how many. The latest estimates put Earth’s population at 7.6 billion people, so Apple can still reach a couple of customers who never tried its devices. But not many.

$265.595 billion

Tim Cook earnings apple
Tim Cook is really good at making money.
Illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

$265.595 billion is the total revenue Apple pulled in during fiscal 2018. The company pulled in $59 billion in net income this year. And now it boasts a whopping $237.1 billion in the bank. Net sales increased by $36.4 billion during 2018, up 16 percent from 2017.

500 million visitors

Apple

Apple stores across the globe welcome 500 million visitors every year. That’s also the number of people who visit the App Store every week.

217 million units

iPhone sales are at an all-time high
iPhone sales are at an all-time high.
Photo: Apple

217 million — that’s the total number of iPhones sold during Apple’s fiscal 2018. That’s up just slightly from the 216 million sold in 2017. iPad sales hit 43.5 million for the year, flat from 2017. Meanwhile, Mac sales hit 18.2 million in 2018.

40.8 million square feet

One of Apple's many solar farms in China
One of Apple’s many solar farms in China.
Photo: Apple

40.8 million square feet is the amount of office space Apple owns or leases in the United States. To put that into perspective, the Pentagon — the world’s largest office building — boasts about 6.5 million square feet of space.

20 million developers

Apple's WWDC 2018 video about developers was hilarious
Apple’s WWDC 2018 video about developers was hilarious.
Photo: Apple

Registered iOS and macOS developers have never been more numerous. More than 20 million people make apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, tvOS and macOS. With so much money pouring into Apple’s ecosystem, it’s not hard to see why it’s such a popular career path.

70 percent adoption rate

iOS 12 launched on September 17
iOS 12 launched on September 17.
Photo: Apple

iOS 12 is one of the most widely adopted iOS releases ever. More than 70 percent of all iOS devices running iOS 12, handily beating the adoption rate of iOS 11. The fact that iOS 12 works on all iOS 11 devices certainly helps.

$14.2 billion on R&D

Apple's Lexus has been upgraded with lots of new sensors
Apple’s Lexus has been upgraded with lots of new sensors.
Photo: Idiggapple/Twitter

Apple’s next big thing is in the works and the company is sparing no expense figuring out what it should be. Apple spending on research and development rose 23 percent in 2018 to $14.2 billion. Self-driving cars, healthcare, augmented and virtual reality, and TV shows are rumored to be areas of high interest for Apple.

132 videos

Don’t miss Apple’s hilarious Elvis-themed Group Facetime ad.
Don’t miss Apple’s wacky Elvis-themed Group FaceTime ad.
Screencap: Apple

No other tech company puts as much effort and creativity into its videos as Apple does. This year, Cupertino delivered no shortage of great ads that ranged from funny to absolute tearjerkers. Apple published 132 ads and other videos on YouTube this year. We rounded up the best ones so you don’t need to watch all of them to catch up.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.