Apple app developers, many of them Indians, earned over $70B

The global developer community, including many from India, has earned over $70 billion since the App Store's launch in 2008, Apple announced on Thursday.

"$70 billion earned by developers is simply mind-blowing. We are amazed at all of the great new apps our developers create and can't wait to see them again next week at our Worldwide Developers' Conference," said Philip Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, in a statement.

In January, Apple announced that its app developers earned over $20 billion in 2016 -- up over 40 percent from 2015 and according to sources, a sizable chunk of those app developers were from India.

Apple last year revealed plans for an iOS app design and development facility in Bengaluru. Across India, Apple supports over 6,40,000 iOS app developer jobs and other positions related to the iOS ecosystem.

According to the company, since the release of iOS 10 last fall, iPhone and iPad users have also experienced new engaging and creative ways to connect.

From Pokémon GO and Super Mario Run to other standout launches such as CancerAid, SPACE by THIX, Zones for Training with Exercise Intensity, Vanido, Ace Tennis and Havenly, customers discovered and experienced new apps and games every day on the App Store.

The App Store developers from around the world create apps for customers in 155 countries.

In the past 12 months alone, downloads from the App Store have grown over 70 percent.

Gaming and Entertainment are top-grossing categories, and Lifestyle apps, as well as Health and Fitness, have experienced over 70-percent growth in the past year.

The Photo and Video category is also among the fastest-growing at nearly 90 percent growth.

With the subscription business model now available to developers across all 25 app categories, the App Store's active paid subscriptions are up 58 percent year-over-year.

"Customers are enjoying subscriptions across a wide variety of services including long-time favourites such as Netflix and Hulu, as well as newcomers like Tastemade, the modern, mobile-first cooking network, and photo editing apps like Over and Enlight," Apple said in a statement.

"People everywhere love apps and our customers are downloading them in record numbers," added Schiller.