Apple has announced that App Store customers worldwide set new spending records over the holidays, topping USD1.22 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Apple also set a new single-day record with customers spending over USD322 million on New Year’s Day 2019 alone.
‘Thanks to the inspiring work of our talented developers and the support of our incredible customers around the world, the App Store finished off an outstanding 2018 and kicked off 2019 with a bang,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
The App Store helped drive the company’s Services revenue to an all-time record in the holiday quarter. Apple services set new all-time records in multiple categories, including the App Store, Apple Music, Cloud Services, Apple Pay, and the App Store’s search ad business.
Apple said that gaming and self-care were the most popular app and subscription categories during the holidays.
Perhaps it isn’t too big a surprise – Fortnite and PUBG Mobile were among the top downloaded games, along with Brawl Stars, Asphalt 9 and Monster Strike.
While it fired a lower revenue guidance warning on Wednesday, the company revealed that it expects to set all-time revenue records in several developed countries including the US, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and South Korea. Additionally, several emerging markets including Malaysia are expected to set revenue records in the just ended quarter in 2018.
The company revised its revenue guidance from USD89-USD93 billion to USD84 billion.
Apple CEO Tim Cook attributed the revenue shortfall to unforeseen economic deceleration in Greater China, amongst other things. He also mentioned that consumers were holding off upgrades to new iPhones because of its discounted battery replacement programme for older devices.
