App Store developers have received $4 billion from Apple

In June 2010, after two years of the App Store being in operation, Apple announced it had paid out $1 billion to developers. By last summer, that number had more than doubled to $2.5 billion paid. By the time the Apple iPhone 4S had launched last October, the cumulative figure paid to developers had risen to $3 billion. To get to that figure, at that point Apple had sold 250 million iOS powered devices and 18 billion apps had been installed on the platform. The latest quarter has seen the Cupertino based firm cut a check to developers for $700,000 which brings the cumulative total to more than $4 billion.

While Android had matched the iOS figure of 250 million units sold in Q3, in the just completed three month holiday shopping period Apple raised its total of iOS devices rung up by 67.87 million units to reach a cumulative total of more than 315 million. While iOS and Android battle neck and neck, back in December Google Chairman Eric Schmidt predicted that app developers would start to "prioritize"writing apps for Android. Schmidt said, "ultimately, application vendors are driven by volume, and volume is favored by the open approach Google is taking," but the executive is wrong because commercial developers seem to focus more on revenue than volume when it comes to distribution of their apps.

Unlike Apple, by making Android a free, open source system, Google is focusing more on volume than revenue. Additionally, Google is not happy with the number of paid apps being purchased in the Android Market. Google's Android platform manager Eric Chu said the company needs to get Android users to spend more money in the Android Market. 

source: AppleInsider