Jobs: iPhone apps bring in $30m in 30 days

Apple has raked in about $30m in sales of iPhone applications in the one month since the company opened its App Store and brought the iPhone 3G onto the market, CEO Steve Jobs told The Wall Street Journal.

Jobs also sees big numbers ahead, if Apple continues its current pace of selling an average of $1m worth of applications per day. That rate would add up to $360m by the first anniversary of the launch of the iPhone 3G and the App Store, Jobs told the Journal. "Who knows? Maybe it will be a $1bn marketplace at some point in time," he added.

In the App Store's first month, Jobs said, iPhone users have downloaded upward of 60 million applications. Many iPhone applications are available for free.

While much of the glory for that accomplishment goes to Apple, a lot of the money does not. About 70 per cent of the proceeds - or roughly $21m so far, Jobs said - are going to the creators of the software applications for the Apple smart phone, leaving 30 per cent for Apple itself - or about enough to cover expenses.

The top 10 developers have accounted for about $9m, or just less than half of the total take for developers, Jobs told the Journal.