Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 05-01-2018

Technology company Apple has set a new record for App Store sales on New Years Day, with consumers spending whopping $ 300 million on mobile apps. 

Apple says customers around the world made apps and games a bigger part of their holiday season in 2017 than ever before, culminating in the record turnover. 

It says during the week starting on Christmas Eve, a record number of customers made purchases or downloaded apps from the App Store, spending over $890 million in that seven-day period.

Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller says the reaction to the new App Store has been phenomenal. 

“We want to thank all of the creative app developers who have made these great apps and helped to change people’s lives. In 2017 alone, iOS developers earned $26.5 billion — more than a 30 percent increase over 2016.”

Among the top apps downloaded by customers include Pokémon GO, which went back to the top of the App Store charts on December 21 with the introduction of new augmented reality features, built on Apple’s ARKit framework for more detailed and realistic gameplay. 

Apple says customers are now enjoying close to 2,000 ARKit-enabled apps spanning every category on the App Store. 

“Among the most popular AR titles are games such as CSR Racing 2, Stack AR and Kings of Pool; shopping apps like Amazon and Wayfair; education apps including Night Sky and Thomas & Friends Minis; and social media apps including Pitu and Snapchat.”

The newly redesigned App Store, introduced with iOS 11 in September, has also been making app and game discovery fun and easy for the over half a billion customers that visit the App Store every week. 

Since the App Store launched in July 2008, iOS developers have earned over $86 billion.

Twitter: @FaizelPatel143