What Worldwide Developers Conference means to programmers
With Apple’s much awaited event beginning today, four young techies who are using coding to change the world speak about its importance
Mathures Paul
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Published 07.06.21, 02:39 AM
When Apple went online with its App Store in 2008, the future of next-gen computing changed overnight. The initial cache of apps had more than 500 titles, including games, educational programmes, mobile commerce and business productivity tools. Skip to 2021. A few days ago Apple announced that the App Store ecosystem facilitated $643 billion in billings and sales during 2020, a 24 per cent year-over-year increase. A new study, ‘A Global Perspective on the Apple App Store Ecosystem’, takes an in-depth look at how the App Store supported small businesses. The number of small developers worldwide has grown by 40 per cent since 2015 — and they make up more than 90 per cent of App Store developers. The study defines small developers as those with fewer than one million downloads and less than one-million dollar in earnings across all their apps in a given year. More than one in four small developers who sell digital goods and services on the App Store have grown their earnings by an average of at least 25 per cent each year for the past five years. No wonder, when Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off on June 7 (it’s a virtual event because of the pandemic), all eyes will be on Apple CEO Tim Cook and the new milestones reached by the App Store.