Apple's app sales hit record US$1.4b in final days of 2019

San Francisco

APPLE Inc said its customers spent a record amount in its App Store during the final days of the holiday season. App Store spending totalled US$1.4 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, up 16 per cent from the same period in 2018, the Cupertino, California-based company said in a blog post.

Rising spending on apps, and the success of wearables such as AirPods, highlight Apple's ability to generate more revenue despite sluggish iPhone growth, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives. That "speaks to the underlying strength that Cupertino is having monetising its golden jewel installed base of 925 million iPhones worldwide," he wrote in a research note.

Gene Munster, a veteran Apple analyst and founder of Loup Ventures, said the App Store data are more evidence that Apple's services expansion isn't directly linked to iPhone sales.

Apple also said App Store spending on the first day of 2020 reached US$386 million, a single-day record and a 20 per cent increase from last year.

Meanwhile another report said that Apple Inc bagged a significant smartphone shipment jump in China last month as the world's largest consumer electronics market heads into its holiday season, official data indicate. The iPhone maker's shipments in China grew 18.7 per cent year on year in December to roughly 3.18 million units, according to Bloomberg calculations based on government data on overall and Android device shipments. The increase marked an acceleration from the prior months, which were buoyed by the iPhone 11's release in September.

The latest data affirms expectations that the iPhone 11 is selling more strongly than its predecessor, particularly in a market that's second only to the US in its importance to Apple's bottom line. The surge in shipments gives reason for optimism around Apple's smartphone sales in the buildup to the Chinese New Year, in late January. BLOOMBERG