Bangalore: Apple paid iOS developers $700 million last quarter, and if you thought nobody could be happier than Apple’s investors when the company released its first Quarter results this year, that’s news for you.

Out of its revenue of $46.3 billion, iOS developers received a cumulative amount of $4 billion through the App Store. Since 30 percent of Apple’s sales come from its Apps Store, ReadWriteMobile (the mobile channel sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent) estimated that the App Store made up for $1 billion of Apple’s revenue. Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO said that there are around 550,000 apps in the App Store (including those for the iPad)—which could mean developers might earn around $7200 per app cumulatively.

According to ReadWriteMobile’s report, if in case the Android Market generated even 50 percent of the amount the App Store earns, mobile applications could be amounting to $6 billion a year, with $1.5 billion coming in every quarter (this includes in-app purchase).

What remains to be considered, though is that money made via advertisements within mobile apps, would make the gross revenue substantially higher. Since Android phones continue to outsell iPhones, developers could earn big this way too especially since Google doesn’t take any of the earning. 70 percent of Android’s revenue goes to developers and 30 percent goes to miscellaneous parties such as payment gateways.

Last quarter saw about 60-65 million Android devices sold while 37 million iPhones and 15 million iPads were sold in the same period. Although Apple did hit a record high last quarter, there are a number of markets that it still has to penetrate, which leaves it a huge scope for growth.

On the whole, there is a world of opportunity for mobile developers whether they develop for the iPhone or Android.