Whilst most in the tech industry watched the console battle between Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One, Apple quietly went about raking in just over US$1billion over December 2013 from their iTunes app store. This was the highest ever monthly figure reported by Apple, reflecting their income from the sale of close to 3 billion apps in the run up to Christmas. Over the whole of 2013 Apple recorded US$10billion in profits from sales of apps through the iTunes store.

Despite Apple hardware losing market space to Samsung and other Android based smartphones and tablets it is believed that the company holds the advantage in revenue from apps. With more users Android has more downloads, particularly from the Google Play store, but the profits are lower.

No official figure has been released yet, and may never be, but industry analysts do not expect Google’s Play store to be anywhere near US$1billion for the whole of 2013.

A contributing factor to the increase in sales is the increased market Apple now has globally. Although Apple products have been available more or less worldwide for some time, licensing issues and local restrictions have prevented the company from selling certain games and apps in some territories. It was only in late 2013, for example, that Apple were able to sell games in African territories via iTunes.

Whatever the ups and downs of their relationship were, it is clear that Steve Jobs learned one thing from Microsoft founder Bill Gates – that software is the seller. In the 80s, Gates famously or rather infamously entered into deals with the likes of IBM over software licensing, a move that saw Microsoft rake in huge profits whilst the PC makers struggled to survive.

Despite it being notoriously difficult to get an app or piece of software approved for sale via iTunes, those that do succeed are also enjoying profits. It is estimated that those who develop and sell apps through iTunes have recorded some US$15billion in sales since iTunes was launched a decade ago.