The American tech giant Apple has seen a spike in revenue as shoppers spent more than $1.8 billion on digital goods and services in the last week of 2020.
This has seen Apple’s App Store have a record breaking holiday season.
The company said the sales spike, which occurred between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, was largely driven by game sales. On New Year’s Day customers spent $540 million
"We're incredibly optimistic about where we're headed, and we believe that the opportunities for developers and the creative community are endless, as are the positive and meaningful benefits to our customers," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.
In November last year, Apple announced a big discount for some smaller developers, offering to cut fees by 50% for companies that make less than $1 million in revenue. But Apple's critics said the move will do little to improve competition and innovation on the App Store.
IOL tech reported that Apple collects a 30% payment processing fee for most digital revenue earned on the App Store. It will cut it to 15% for small developers. Critics, including many developers, called the fee exorbitant, comparing it with the roughly 2% charged by competing payment processors.The fee cut addresses a major issue called out by developers and lawmakers investigating Apple over allegedly anti-competitive tactics.
Apple said in a press release that mobile app businesses had taken on new importance during the pandemic and that the discounted price would give them more resources.
IOL TECH