Google in its Alphabet’s Q4 earnings report revealed that the company’s hardware division has become a “multibillion-dollar” business.
Upon merging Google’s hardware businesses with its subscription services (Youtube Premium and Youtube Music Premium) we get a staggering $17 billion of revenue in 2019 alone.
However, it is still on guessing and surmising which hardware product is contributing the most to this revenue, whether it is Pixel phones and laptops, Nest doorbells, cameras, speakers, routers, and thermostats, or Chromecast dongles. Although we do know that from its announcement at Google I/O 2019 to the end of that quarter, Pixel 3A sold twice as many devices.
This growth in revenue and profit that Google enjoys every year has finally rippled down the Android developer community. Since the whole ecosystem of Google majorly depends on their developers, it was time they got the recognition and reward they deserved.
Sundar Pichai revealed that Google Play has paid over $80 billion to its developers to date.
On the same matter, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google’s senior vice president tweeted-
“Today, @sundarpichai shared that developers around the world (excl. China) have earned more than $80 billion to date on @GooglePlay. Our platform can’t succeed without the help of our developer ecosystem, so a huge thank you for all you do!”
Now, let’s get real.
Initially, $80 billion might sound like a big deal and it may be for developers using Google’s Play Store to distribute their apps. However, this number is way lesser than Google’s contender – Apple.
In fact, Apple crossed the threshold of $100 billion back in 2018. In 2017, this amounted to $70 billion projecting a $30 billion increase in number in just a year.
And speaking of the most current events, in 2019 as well, Apple was ahead of Google by a very significant margin in paying out developers. Which according to analysts, amounted to an 80% difference between the two in just the H1 2019.
Nevertheless, it is still a piece of good news for developers devoted to Android app development. With time, we can only expect this number to grow and cross the milestone of $100 billion as soon as possible since Google is the most widely used platform globally.
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