Apple: iPhone Authors Report Sales Surge on Christmas

Whether or not the Macworld show next month — Apple’s ( AAPL ) last, it has announced — brings exciting new gadgets, the new year could see some rising numbers for sales of the company’s iPhone and its attendant software programs. Several authors of top-selling programs for the iPhone, distributed through Apple’s online “App Store,” report a surge in sales of their programs on Christmas day last week. To take just one example, the author of the current top-selling application for the iPhone, iFart (yes, it’s a version of the classic fart-machine sound effects box for the iPhone) reports on his blog that sales of the program, which costs 99 cents, rose on Christmas day to 38,927 from 19,520 units the day before. Numerous other authors are quoted on blog posts on sites such as Toucharcade describing 3x and 4x increases in sales on Christmas day. Apple has indicated it more or less breaks even on app sales after the cost of hosting the App Store and ... (link)