For Apple App Store, hits keep coming!

Apple’s App Store is doing spectacularly and Cupertino, CA-based company wants the world to know it. In a press release this morning, Apple said:

• 1.4 million apps (of which more than 725,000 are made for iPad)
• The first week of January set a new record for billings from the App Store: nearly $500 million spent on apps and in-app purchases.
• New Year’s Day 2015 marked the single biggest day ever in App Store sales history.
• In 2014, the App Store billings rose 50% and apps generated over $10 billion in revenue for developers.

In other words, during the year, App Store had sales of $14.3 billion. Based on the 70-30 revenue split, Apple had a net revenues of $4.3 billion from the App Store. Ben Schachter of Macquarie Securites estimates that if one assumes that the App Store is an 80% operating margin business, the App Store generated roughly $3.5 billion in operating profit for the company during calendar 2014.

By that math, the first week of 2015 alone, App Store brought in roughly $120 million in operating profit. The strong first week App Store sales also hint at a better than expected sales of iOS devices, something that was hinted by UBS Research. I pointed out yesterday that Apple might have had the best quarter ever in its history, thanks largely due to strong iPhone demand.

Additional reading: A very Appy Apple.