Apple announces record-breaking holiday season sales on App Store

Apple's CEO Tim Cook (C) poses for photo with young developers from all around the world during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2015 in San Francisco, the United States, June 8, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

US tech giant Apple Inc announced on Wednesday that customers around the world made this holiday season the biggest ever for the App Store, setting new records during the weeks of Christmas and New Year's.

According to the company, in the two weeks ending on January 3, customers spent over $1.1 billion on apps and in-app purchases, setting back-to-back weekly records for traffic and purchases.

January 1, 2016 marked the biggest day in App Store history with customers spending over $144 million. It broke the previous single-day record set just a week earlier on Christmas Day.

"The App Store had a holiday season for the record books. We are excited that our customers downloaded and enjoyed so many incredible apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV, spending over $20 billion on the App Store last year alone," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

"Customers in China love the App Store and have made it our largest market in the world for app downloads," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, during the launch of Apple Music in the nation in September.

The App Store has brought in nearly $40 billion for developers since 2008, with over one-third generated in the last year alone.

According to figures released by Apple in October, there were more than 1 million Chinese developers working on iOS apps this year compared to 500,000 during the same period in 2014.

Three apps from the Palace Museum were listed by Apple as the nation's most imaginative, creative and attractive apps, with one of them, Han Xizai's Night Feast, being named the best app of the year.

Meanwhile, thanks to the App Store's achievements, Apple has previously reported that the iOS app economy has created 1.4 million jobs in China.