Apple Developers Average 17.5 Cents a Download

Apple announced Monday that its users downloaded more than 40 billion apps from its App Store, but at least one analyst says that the average app download only made developers 17.5 cents.

The download price hasn't risen much from its previous 16 cents, according to Forbes.  Apple also said the downloads also made $7 billion for developers, but the number can be a little misleading. From the report:

Another number we can gain from this is that the average app, over its lifetime, earns around $9,000. That’s the mean though: the median would be much much lower. For we’ve very much got a power law going on here. A few apps are making tens of millions, one or two over $100 million, and most make nothing at all (obviously so for the free ones) or close to it even if they’re trying to charge.

Basically, the odds are against developers making any money, but there is still a chance to gain some revenue from ads even if an app is even losing cash. Google has shown us that a strong advertising strategy can be the added economic strength behind a free download, such as of Google Maps for iOS
 
 
 
 
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