June 10, 2013: Apple passes a major milestone in iOS history, as payments to app developers top $10 billion on the App Store’s fifth birthday.

Speaking at WWDC 2013, Tim Cook reveals that half of this money has been paid out in the previous year. He also notes that this is 3x more than all other app store platforms combined. With 575 million user accounts registered, Apple has more credit cards on file than any other company on the internet.

Cook also says that these accounts have downloaded 50 billion apps in total out of a collection of 900,000 available apps. Ninety-three percent of these apps are downloaded at least once every month.

It’s an extraordinary success story for Apple. When the App Store opened its virtual doors in July 2008, it wasn’t something which had the full support of the company. Steve Jobs didn’t initially like the idea of letting users sully the iPhone by running their own non-Apple apps. However, he changed his mind when he realized there was money to be made.

After that, the App Store has gone from strength to strength. By September 2008, it had received 100 million downloads, and 1 billion by April 2009. Apple, meanwhile, took home 30 percent of each app sold, giving the company another lucrative revenue stream.

Things done changed

Here in 2018, the App Store is now 10 years old. Astonishingly, at this year’s WWDC, Tim Cook revealed that it has now surpassed $100 billion paid out to developers. It has 500 million visitors a week, and 350 million apps written in Apple’s Swift programming language, which Apple debuted at WWDC 2014, which are available for download.

Do you remember the very first app that you ever downloaded from the iOS App Store? Are you an iOS developer, and how has life changed for you over the past decade? Let us know your thoughts on the topic in the comments box below.