From Silicon Alley Insider:
Last week Apple announced that its 200 million iOS users have downloaded 15 billion applications.
How much money money is Apple making from those 15 billion downloads? Apple wasn’t so forthcoming about that, so we’ll have to rely on this estimate from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
Munster says the average selling price of an app in the App Store is $1.44. Of that Apple nets $0.18 after you account for credit card fees and storage/delivery costs.
Since the App Store launched, Apple has earned a net profit of $538 million on paid app sales, estimates Munster. It has spent an additional $246 million on storing and delivering free apps, says Munster, suggesting Apple’s true profit is just $292 million.
Of course, that’s the narrow way of looking how much Apple is making from the App Store. Apple’s vibrant app ecosystem has helped it sell millions of iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches, helping it earn billions in profits.