
What is the annual revenue from Mac vs. Windows apps? - kartickv
How do Mac and Windows compare in terms of the annual revenue they generate for all app developers?<p>For this purpose, it doesn&#x27;t matter whether the app is sold on the app store or on the developer&#x27;s web site.<p>I&#x27;m thinking of developing a PC app, and trying to figure out whether to build it on Mac or Windows.
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jakobegger
It really depends on your target audience.

For example, I make an app for hipster web devs, and it does really well on
the Mac.

On the other hand, if you make an app for payroll accounting, I strongly
recommend to make a Windows app.

Some apps, like a citation manager for researchers, really should be cross-
platform and work on Linux too; a browser extension might work really great
here.

If you'd like more specific advise, tell us more about the field you're
interested in!

If you don't have an idea yet, I recommend looking for a niche first. Once you
identified your target audience, you only need to find out what platform they
use.

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kartickv
Good points. This is a productivity app, but I'd like an answer to the
original question, please: how many billions of dollars of revenue does the
Mac generate for all developers across all categories of apps? Windows?

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ProblemFactory
Nobody knows these numbers. There are some reports from developers on how much
they make from the Mac App Store (for example
[http://www.cultofmac.com/321860/youll-never-guess-how-
little...](http://www.cultofmac.com/321860/youll-never-guess-how-little-a-
top-10-mac-app-makes-per-day/)), but I've never seen any aggregate numbers.

On both Windows and Mac, all big and many small app developers have their own
billing and sales. When you buy Photoshop, MS Office, IntelliJ, or even many
small tools, then you skip the app store, pay them directly, and download from
them directly. So not even Apple or Microsoft know the numbers.

~~~
kartickv
How about Mac App Store vs Windows Store revenue?

