Apple's app store set a new record for billings during the first week of 2015, generating nearly $500 million from app and in-app purchases.

New Year's Day 2015 also set a landmark by becoming "the single biggest day ever in App Store sales history." The record-setting beginning to 2015 follows a successful 2014, where billings rose 50 percent and developers raked in over $10 billion in revenue.

"This year is off to a tremendous start after a record-breaking year for the App Store and our developer community," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in a company press release. "We're so proud of the creativity and innovation developers bring to the apps they create for iOS users and that the developer community has now earned over $25 billion." 

Apple's App Store remains the gold standard for all app services. While Android is popular around the world, its app offerings aren't as robust. Although Android's Google Play store contains over 1 million apps, there is a large amount of fragmentation that affects the way apps work across a variety of devices. Apple's App Store apps, however, are usually streamlined for success across iPhones, iPods and iPads thanks to the fact Apple manufactures all of them in-house and has more rigorous app application process.

Cue believes the surge in apps and their subsequent fiscal success can partly be attributed to Apple's new programming language, Swift, which streamlines many features for developers. There's also the new HealthKit and HomeKit frameworks that developers can integrate various services through and Metal, a graphics API that makes producing games easier.

"We could never have dreamed of this level of success, with Crossy Road only being available on the App Store for the last six weeks of the year," said co-founder of Hipster Whale Matthew Hall. "In a couple of months we were able to create a simple, fun game that was featured on the App Store and climbed to the top of the App Store charts around the world -- it's amazing."

The launch of Apple Pay, Apple's own payment system, has also boosted the number of features developers can cram into their apps.

"The response we've seen from HotelTonight customers since the introduction of Apple Pay has been fantastic," said HotelTonight CEO Sam Shank. "Our current customer base is enjoying the convenience of Apple Pay and we're continuing to see a growing number of new customers because of Apple Pay's easy and secure approach to payments."

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