• Fortune, Wednesday, June 23, 2010 12:31 PM

To date, Apple's App Store has generated $1 billion for developers, estimates Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster in a report issued to clients on Wednesday. App pricing data suggest that 81% of apps are free, and 19% are paid, with an average selling price of $1.49. Apple's gross margin on the App Store is about 44%, according to Munster, assuming 70% goes to the developer, $0.20 plus 2% of the average selling price to the credit card company, and 1% for storage and delivery. Meanwhile, Apple has generated a total of $33.7 billion in gross profit since the App Store launched, to which the App Store has contributed $189 million, or 1%.
,br />Over the same time period -- the fourth quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2010 -- the entire iTunes store has generated $3.6 billion in revenue, to which the App Store has contributed $429 million, or 12%. "Of course, the purpose of the App Store is to drive sales of Apple hardware, and in that it is succeeding admirably," notes Fortune. Munster's calculations also suggest that iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users download more than 16.6 million apps per day -- nearly double the 8.9 million daily rate of iTunes tracks downloaded.

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