Category: Apps

Android revenues have brought $31 billion to Google

| January 26, 2016

According to recent reports, the tech giant’s profits from that amount were about $22 billion.

An attorney for Oracle has recently released a figure that has shown that Android revenues for Google since its original launch have been an estimated $31 billion, with $22 billion of that amount consisting of profit.

The figures were released by the lawyer as a part of the lawsuit Oracle has filed against Google.

The report on this issue was originally made by Bloomberg. It stated that within the lawsuit, it is claimed that Google has been using the Java software from Oracle in order to generate its mobile operating system and that it has been generating these Android revenues without having paid for the use of the Java software in the first place. The figures quoted by the lawyer had to do with the earnings that had been generated from a range of different mobile services and products.

The Android revenues included everything from app purchases to ads running on the operating system.

Android Revenues Bring Google BillionsThe figures shared by Oracle were based on internal financial documents from Google and included the earnings from app purchases within the Play store and Google supplied ads that were run on the mobile OS. Google was quite displeased with the fact that Oracle had obtained and openly shared those figures that were meant to remain internal.

Google expressed its displeasure in the form of a request that it made for a redacting of the figures from the public transcript of the case. It said that “Google does not publicly allocate revenues or profits to Android separate and apart from Google’s general business.” The request went on to say that “That non-public financial data is highly sensitive, and public disclosure could have significant negative effects on Google’s business.”

As of the writing of this article, the decision as to whether or not the Android revenues and profits would be redacted from the case’s public transcript had not yet been laid down. It is not yet known whether the figures will be allowed to remain or whether they will indeed be blocked from the public eye. What is known is that the media has already taken hold of the figures published by Bloomberg.

Plummeting Canadian dollar means rising prices for Apple mobile apps

| January 25, 2016

iPhone users are suddenly finding that the Apple App Store isn’t quite as affordable as it was a week ago.

The falling Canadian dollar, nicknamed the “loonie” after the loon image on the coin, has been experiencing a steady drop over the last several months, but mobile apps for iOS devices have maintained the same price.

This has meant that Apple will be hiking prices at the Canadian App Store for the second year in a row.

This means that Canadians can expect their iTunes bills to start to rise along with the prices of mobile apps for their Apple devices. The reason given for the change in price is simply the foreign exchange rates. The company expressed that Canada won’t actually be the only country in which iPhone apps will be getting pricier. Aside from that North American nation, there will also be price increases in Mexico, South Africa, Russia, New Zealand, Singapore and Israel. The notice was given to provide consumers with 72 hours of warning.

The announcement from Apple said there would be two new low-price tiers for mobile apps sold in Canada.

Mobile Apps - Prices in Canada ClimbingThat said, Apple did not use the document to explain precisely what the new price tiers for the sales of Canadian iPhone apps would be. The Next Web has released a report that indicates that where the cheapest apps had been $1.19, those would be increasing to $1.39. While that difference may seem moderate, it is in the more higher-priced mobile applications that the difference would be the most striking. The report indicated that apps that had previously been $50.00 would see a new and much higher price at $69.99.

At the time of the writing of this article, Apple had declined the opportunity to comment on the claims made within the report.

This is the second time that the price of iPhone mobile apps has been recently increased as a result of the falling Canadian dollar. Only a year ago, $0.99 apps saw their prices increased to $1.19, with more expensive apps seeing prices rising correspondingly. At that time, the applications were made more expensive as a result of foreign exchange rates as well as changes to value-added tax (VAT).