Average wage of £70k now paid to UK developers
Rovio - premier app developer
More than $10 billion (£6.2 billion) has now been spent on iPhone and iPad apps since Apple launched its App Store back in July 2008, the Californian giant has revealed. And, with Apple getting a 30 per cent cut, the downloading of some 40 billion apps means it has raked in over $3 billion for its own coffers and paid $7 billion to developers – a feat that alone would make Apple one of the world’s biggest media businesses. Moreover, the rate of downloads is increasing with December 2012 setting a new record with some two billion apps purchased as millions of Apple devices were unwrapped on Xmas day.
Out of the 775,000 apps available, around 300,000 are dedicated to the iPad, Apple said.
Meanwhile Swedish firm, Rovio, is proving to be among the most successful developers, estimated to have accrued more than £100 million from its popular Angry Birds app.
Salaries for app developers are soaring too and, in the UK, are now said to be at an all-time high with an average of £70,000, according to ReThink Recruitment.
Despite the competition from Apple, Korean giant Samsung’s profits hit a record level in Q4 2012, rising 88 per cent from a year earlier to about Won 8.8 trillion ($8.27 billion).
Revenue rose 18 per cent to approximately Won 56 trillion, much of it driven by sales of its Galaxy smartphones which accounted for about two-thirds of earnings in the previous quarter.
