Overview of the Mobile Apps Industry

Mobile apps (short for “applications”), including those for magazines, information services such as health site WebMD, games, newspapers, catalogs and ebooks, to name but a few of the tens of thousands of uses, didn’t really exist before the introduction of the iconic iPhone smartphone (although online “widgets,” which offer similar features, had been around for quite some time). The Apple App Store launched in July 2008 with only about 500 apps available. By 2022, Apple’s store had 1.8 million apps that were either for sale or downloadable free-of-charge. Sensor Tower reports that Apple’s App Store sales grew to $155.7 billion in 2023, up from only $85.1 billion in 2021.

The vast majority of apps are downloadable free-of-charge, as they are offered to consumers to enable them to more quickly access internet-based stores and services via mobile devices. You might think of this as app-based advertising. For example, airlines such as United Airlines and Singapore Airlines offer free apps that make it easier to make purchases from the airlines. Apps sold for a fee generate only modest revenues per average app, with roughly 500 downloads daily per average app. App fees tend to be in the $3.00 range. Paid apps usually are free of advertisements. However, Apple announced plans to reduce fees from 30% to 15% of app store sales for small developers (those with no more than $1 million in revenue). Sensor Tower estimated that only about 0.2% of the apps in the Apple App Store generated more than $1 million in 2019.

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