For all of its millions of apps sold, Apple may not be making as much cash from their App Store as once thought. The Apple Insider reports fresh metrics, that indicate the App Store is bringing in a meager 3% of Apple’s revenue, not as much as you would think, concerning the staggering number of apps downloaded to date.

Here’s how the metrics flesh out. Most apps are free. More than likely, you paid for only a couple Apps on your iPhone. Analysts estimate that Apple only sold less than 50 million apps, and possibly even as low as 25 million. Either way you slice it, that is a paltry number of paid apps when compared to one billion total downloads. Based on the average price-per-app, Apple could not have made more than $160 million from these downloads and even as low as $70 million. Since almost half of that revenue must be paid to the developers, Apple registers further losses on a potentially profitable store. But the lion’s share of the revenue feeds operating costs. Advertisements, engineers, administration, overhead—all of these cost another 50% of the shrinking cash pile. At the end of the day, Apple is left with just a few coins to rub together.

But before you wipe a tear and pull out your checkbook to make a charitable donation, be aware that Apple is making a profit. The app store does not exist as a cash cow in and of itself, but it does generate business for the company. How? By driving up sales of the iPod and iTouch. Essentially, the App Store is a gigantic advertisement (a profit-generating advertisement) that bolsters the real cash cow—iPhones. Whether its Tap Tap Revenge (although its free), Tweetie, NetShare, or Trism, four of the most popular iPhone apps, Apple uses these apps as come-ons for purchasing its devices. After all, you can’t very well play with Shazam on your Blackberry.

Thus, while the App Store may not be the king of the hill in terms of Apple’s revenue distribution, it certainly bears the blame for Apple’s ever-increasing popularity and share value.

We all know the App Store is a pretty hoppin place at the moment. With thousands upon thousands of apps being downloaded daily, it never ceases to amaze. Now, Apple is wanting to reach a steep plateau…1 billion downloads (say that with a Dr. Evil voice).

Of course, Apple is going about this is a pretty cool way. They’re holding a contest, and when you download one of their featured apps you’re automatically registered to win. The winner will receive a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro. For more details click the link below.

1 Billion App Download Contest

The more I’m around sim/god type games (The Sims, Black & White, Sim City); you begin to see the true nature of people. Being able to do whatever you want to virtual people, there’s something sadistically fun about it. Pocket God brings that same sadistic fun to the iPhone/iPod Touch. Pocket God allows you to be the god of the people who’s home is on a lone island. You can perform all kinds of weird, and interesting acts on them. Here are some of my favorites:

- Lift a shark out of the water, and smack your villagers in the head with it. Then drop it on the island for fun.

- Allow the villagers to sacrifice themselves to the volcano.

- Use your godly powers to shift the gravitational force on the island.

Pocket God App Page

If you take at trip through the App Store today, you might take notice of some early spring cleaning. Apple decided to completely delete reviews for apps, from users who hadn’t downloaded the app in question.

Apple has changed the ‘review and comment’ rules before. A few months ago, Apple changed the system so that only customers who actually bought an app could leave a review. Now they’ve just taken it a step further.

This will change the scoring landscape, specifically for apps who’ve received thousands of reviews. Some will see an increase in average review scores, while others will see a decrease. It will be interesting to see who favors, and who is hurt by this. Perhaps, it might weed out some app devs who were boosting their scores.

I’m going to try and browse through to find any significant changes that I’ve noticed. If readers would be so kind, please report any huge changes that you notice.

[via: MacRumors]