Apple Has Now Paid $20 Billion to iOS Devs, According to Quarterly Earnings Call

Apple held its quarterly earnings call today, and the report from CEO Tim Cook follows the general trend we've been seeing for some months now. Device sales are generally up for year-over-year, with the notable exception of the iPad (which has witnesses sales drops of 8 percent in the past 12 months). But there's an important statistic among all these numbers—since 2008, the Cupertino giant has paid over 20 billion to its iOS developers.

Compare that figure to the $15 billion Apple reported just last January, and you'll discover that that's a increase of $5 billion just within the last half-year. TechCrunch, who drew attention to the figure, points out that Google reportedly paid out $5 billion over the entirety of last year. Push those numbers a few months further, and it's suddenly apparent that Apple has paid out "nearly half" of the total $20 billion within the last 12 months along.

TechCrunch also points out that Apple's cut of all this is approximately $8.5 billion, based on a calculation figuring in the iPhone maker's 30 percent cut and thus bringing the total number to roughly $28.57 billion. If you weren't already aware, in other words, it's a good idea to focus on iOS if you design apps for mobile devices.

All total, Apple sold 35.20 million iPhones, 13.27 million iPads, 4.41 million Macs, and 2.96 million iPods during the last quarter. For the same quarter last year, Apple sold 31.24 million iPhones, 14.62 million iPads, 3.75 million Macs, and 4.57 million iPods.

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