Apple this morning released a year-end retrospective of its Services business, which includes the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud and, new in 2019, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple News+ and Apple Card. In particular, the company highlighted new holiday 2019 records set on the App Store, which sees over a half a billion visits from people in 155 countries per week. To date, App Store developers have earned over $155 billion, Apple noted.
What’s remarkable is that a quarter of those earnings came in last year alone.
Apple also noted it saw a busy holiday season on the App Store, with customer spending reaching $1.42 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve — a 16% increase over 2018.
On New Year’s Day, customers spent $386 million alone — a 20% increase over 2019 and a new single-day record.
The company confirmed the year’s top 10 free and paid apps and games, with YouTube, Facetune, Mario Kart Tour and Minecraft snagging the No. 1 position in their respective categories. (Full lists are below.) Apple Arcade, meanwhile, grew to include more than 100 games.
Beyond the App Store, Apple touted some of the major achievements for its other Services businesses, but not in terms of revenue generated.
For example, it said that more than 50% of Apple Music listeners tried the time-synced lyrics feature on iOS 13. It also noted that its Apple TV+ shows received Golden Globe and SAG nominations in year one. And it said Apple News now has over 100 million monthly active users in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada.
On the podcasting front, Apple noted its Podcasts app now includes over 800,000 shows in 155 countries. For comparison’s sake, its chief rival Spotify has over 500,000.
Apple Pay allowed entry to more than 150 stadiums, ballparks, arenas and entertainment venues around the world with contactless tickets in 2019, and users could ride public transit in Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Moscow, London and New York. This year, more cities are being added, including Washington, D.C., Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Foshan, plus several U.S. universities.
In terms of security, over 75% of iCloud users have enabled two-factor authentication, Apple noted.
“2019 was the biggest year for Services in Apple’s history. We introduced several exciting new experiences for our customers, all while setting the standard for user privacy and security,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in a statement. “We begin the new decade with incredible momentum and gratitude to our customers who have shown such enthusiasm for all of our Services, and we continue to celebrate the work of the world’s best creators, storytellers, journalists and developers,” he added.
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