Apple's app developers' earnings top $100B

Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Apple is already the most valuable listed company in terms of both market capitalisation and brand value, but there's one more industry metric that it's trying to challenge for the top spot - although they're using a different weapon in its arsenal.
During his keynote speech at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California on Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook disclosed a number that's staggering: so far, the earnings raked in by app developers for its platforms have already crossed the $100 billion mark.
"In these 10 years, the App Store has fundamentally changed the way we all live," he said during his WWDC18 keynote. "It's spawned new industries, new companies and changed lives."
Cook added that Apple now has 20 million registered developers.
If that $100 billion is to be compared to the highest brand values globally, that one big paycheck would sit at fourth.
Forbes' most recent report on the most valuable brands worldwide shows that Apple sits atop with $182.2 billion, followed by Alphabet's Google ($132.1 billion) and Microsoft ($104.9 billion); the 3 US tech giants are the only ones to enjoy a brand value in the 12-figure territory. Facebook ($94.8 billion) and Amazon ($70.9 billion) round up the all-technology top 5.
Coca-Cola ($57.3 billion), Samsung ($47.6 billion), Disney ($47.5 billion), Toyota ($44.7 billion) and AT&T ($41.9 billion) complete the top 10.
"A robust brand helps drive demand and pricing power," Forbes writer Kurt Badenhausen pointed out in his piece. "The 5 tech brands above do it better than anyone else."
If the Forbes list is compared to the Brand Finance Global 500 annual study, which was published in February, there are some noticeable shifts: it lists Amazon as the world's No.1 with $150.8 billion, ahead of Apple ($146.3 billion) and Google ($120.9 billion) - meaning Apple developers' big bucks would still remain in fourth.
South Korea's Samsung is fourth in the Brand Finance list with $92.3 billion, but on a highest-per-country basis, it's second to Jeff Bezos and Co. Facebook, with $89.7 billion, is fourth in the United States but fifth globally.
The sixth to ninth positions are held by American firms: AT&T ($82.4 billion), Microsoft ($81.2 billion), Verizon ($62.8 billion) and Walmart ($61.5 billion). Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) rounds out the top 10 ($59.2 billion).
Worldwide, ICBC is third, followed by Germany's Mercedes-Benz ($43.9 billion), Japan's Toyota ($43.7 billion), the Netherlands' Shell ($39.4 billion), Sweden's Ikea (24.4 billion), France's Orange ($22.2 billion), the UK's BP ($19.6 billion) and Switzerland's Nestle ($19.4 billion).
India's Tata Group is 12th ($14.2 billion), while the UAE's etisalat is 22nd ($7.7 billion) - the first time the telecom firm was ranked first in the country since the list's inception.
The $100 billion Cook reported is up from June 2017's $70 billion, and double the $50 billion posted 2 years ago.
In either case, one thing is clear: the app developer community is rapidly-growing.
And it's rubbing off on Apple: as at this writing, the company's market capitalisation was at $942.87 billion, putting it very much on track to beat everyone else to the trillion-dollar mark.
- alvin@khaleejtimes.com