Bangalore - In the month since Apple Inc., opened the App
Store, an online software clearinghouse, users have downloaded more than 60
million programs for the iPhone, chief executive Steve Jobs told The Wall Street
Journal in an interview.
Apple sold an average of $1 million a day in applications for
a total of about $30 million in sales over the month, Jobs told the paper.
If sales stay at the current pace, Apple stands to earn at
least $360 million a year in new revenue from the App Store, Jobs said.
"This thing's going to crest a half a billion, soon," Jobs
told the journal adding that it may be a "$1 billion marketplace at some point
in time."
Jobs told the paper that Apple is keeping only 30 percent of
the proceeds from application sales while the programs' creators keep 70
percent.
However, Jobs believes that applications will sell more
iPhones and wireless-enabled iPod touch devices, enhancing the appeal of the
products in the same way.
Jobs confirmed that iPhones routinely check an Apple Web site
that could, in theory, trigger the removal of the undesirable software from the
devices.
He told the paper that Apple needed the capability in case it inadvertently
allowed a malicious program to be distributed to iPhones through the App Store.
- Reuters
