Sales in Apple Applications Generate $1.1 Trillion in 2022

A woman uses an iPhone mobile device as she passes a lighted Apple logo at the Apple store at Grand Central Terminal in New York on April 14, 2023. (Mike Segar/Reuters)

Apple announced on Wednesday that App Store applications generated $1.1 trillion in sales and billings in 2022, according to information from a study by Analysis Group.

More than 90 percent of the money went to developers, without a commission paid to Apple. This is because the sales were not done through the App Store but rather inside the app, such as booking airplane tickets via an app, booking a taxi, ordering food, subscriptions to newspapers, and music or video streaming.

From 2021, sales via Apple devices increased by 29 percent, according to the research report.

From 2019 to 2022, sales of applications related to travel increased 84 percent, one of the biggest increases. Ride-hailing sales increased by 45 percent.

In 2019, overall sales of iOS applications totaled $519 billion. Sales increased every year, reaching $1.1 trillion in 2022.

General retail sales remained the biggest part of the sum, generating $621 billion in 2022. Such sales may include items such as clothing and groceries, purchased through a vendor’s iOS app.

Travel sales almost doubled year to year reaching $102 billion in 2022, and food delivery sales added more than $10 billion, reaching $77 billion.

Advertising within apps gathered $109 billion in 2022, more than double the $46 billion made in 2020.

From 2019 the year-to-year increase in total sales was around 30 percent until 2022.

In Europe, app developer sales since 2019 increased by 116 percent.

In 2022 the App Store blocked more than $2 billion in fraudulent transactions. It also rejected 1.7 million app submissions for failing to meet privacy, security, and quality standards.

The company has recently called for software updates on its devices to fix vulnerabilities.

Since the launch of the App Store 15 years ago, apps were downloaded more than 370 billion times and developers have earned more than $320 billion, according to the report. There were 650 million average weekly visitors to the App Store.

“We’ve never been more hopeful about—or more inspired by—the incredible community of developers around the world,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “As this report shows, the App Store is a vibrant, innovative marketplace where opportunity thrives, and we’re as committed as ever to investing in developers’ success and the app economy’s future.”

Apple is expected to reveal its latest software updates from June 5 to June 9, during its annual online developers conference.

American Investment

The company announced in May it has entered a multi-billion-dollar deal with chipmaker Broadcom Inc. to use chips made in the United States.

Under the multi-year deal, Broadcom will develop 5G radio frequency components with Apple that will be designed and built in several U.S. facilities, including Fort Collins, Colorado, where Broadcom has a major factory, Apple said.

Apple has been steadily diversifying its supply chains, building more products in India and Vietnam and saying that it will source chips from a new Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plant under construction in Arizona.

Apple said it will tap Broadcom for what are known as film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) chips. The FBAR chips are part of a radio-frequency system that helps iPhones and other Apple devices connect to mobile data networks.

“All of Apple’s products depend on technology engineered and built here in the United States, and we’ll continue to deepen our investments in the U.S. economy because we have an unshakable belief in America’s future,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement at that time.

Apple said it currently supports more than 1,100 jobs in Broadcom’s Fort Collins FBAR filter manufacturing facility.

Asia Expansion

Apple said in May it would open its first online store in Vietnam, as the iPhone vendor doubles down on emerging markets to drive growth amid slowing sales in China.

The opening on May 18 comes just weeks after the Cupertino, California-based company opened its first Apple stores in India—Mumbai and Delhi.

Cook is betting that emerging markets will provide more opportunities for growth, with younger populations and relatively few iPhones.

Apple did not say when it plans to open physical stores in Vietnam, which has a population of 100 million people.

Online stores often precede the opening of retail stores. Apple already sells products in Vietnam via licensed vendors and has multiple suppliers that assemble its gadgets in the country for export.

Apple first launched an online store in India in 2020.

Reuters contributed to this report.