Money Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Five apps to help you track your finances

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jan 21st, 2012)

It's January, which means you're probably thinking about your finances for the upcoming year. Tax season is right around the corner. There might be employment changes coming or large purchases on your mind. Here are five apps to help you keep track of your money as it goes in and out of your ...

Most of Apple's $82 billion cash stockpile is 'trapped' overseas

by Chris Rawson (Jan 11th, 2012)

Apple may have enough cash on hand to make Scrooge McDuck's money vault look like a kiddie pool by comparison, but according to SeekingAlpha, most of that cash is effectively trapped overseas. US$54 billion of Apple's overall $82 billion in cash is in offshore accounts, and Apple cannot ...

Piper Jaffray: iTunes Match likely breaking even for Apple

by Mike Schramm (Dec 9th, 2011)

Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray believes that for all of Apple's success with iTunes Match so far, the company is probably still only breaking even on the service. Sure, $24.99 a year from all of the service's users is a lot of money flowing in, but there's a lot going the other way as well, from ...

Bob Iger picks up $55,000 in stock for joining Apple's Board

by Mike Schramm (Nov 19th, 2011)

We mentioned earlier this week that Disney CEO Bob Iger was invited to join up to Apple's Board of Directors, and Fortune reports that as part of his deal, Iger got 142 restricted shares of AAPL, totalling a nice bonus of over $55,000 at current market value. Nice work, if you can get it! We ...

Study: Shopping on iPads increases spending

by Mike Schramm (Nov 12th, 2011)

Whether you want to hear it or not (and trust me, I don't either), the holidays are just a couple of weeks away. Just a short 14 days from now, the holiday season will be upon us, and Black Friday and other holiday deals will be everywhere, encouraging us to buy gifts, sale items, and whatever ...

Apple expenditures to grow on solar project, new campus

by Mike Schramm (Oct 31st, 2011)

Apple's got incredible amounts of money in the bank, as you probably already know. According to recent financial filings, Apple is about to spend a good bit of it. The company will reportedly spend US$8 billion during the next financial year, which is more than twice what it spend during the ...

360iDev: How to make money from a free app

by Mike Schramm (Sep 12th, 2011)

Developer Brian Robbins from Riptide Games gave a fascinating talk today about the apparent paradox of trying to make money off of a free app on Apple's App Store. Originally the App Store had only the two choices of a free or paid release. More recently, developers have a bevy of options for ...

Younger audiences play more freemium games, but 25-34 year-olds pay for them

by Mike Schramm (Sep 8th, 2011)

Flurry's latest post is yet another interesting read on freemium games on the App Store, specifically which age groups are playing them, and which age groups are paying for them. They've used consumer spending data across over 1.4 billion sessions, which means this information is as accurate as ...

Apple spending some of its cash in US Capitol

by Kelly Hodgkins (Sep 8th, 2011)

Apple has a large cash reserve and it's using some of the those funds to lobby Congress. Judging by the money that's passing hands, Apple is taking its lobbying efforts seriously. In the second quarter of 2011, Apple spent a whopping US$790,000 on lobbying. This is more than double what the ...

Apple is tops in retail dollars per square foot across US stores

by Mike Schramm (Aug 24th, 2011)

A site called RetailSails has done an analysis of the top global moneymaking retailers per square feet of store space, and guess who comes out on top? That's right, it's Apple, who reportedly picks up over $5600 a year per every square foot of retail store space. There is some confusion and ...

Freemium items may make money for devs, but aren't kept by consumers

by Mike Schramm (Aug 17th, 2011)

The developers behind the iOS game Hungry Shark recently released some statistics showing just how powerful the freemium model (in which customers download an app or game for free, and then support it with in-app purchases) can be. While the game floundered as a paid app, it's gotten much more ...

Study: Average customer spends $14 in freemium games on iOS and Android

by Mike Schramm (Jul 25th, 2011)

This is pretty crazy news from mobile analytics firm Flurry: The average customer in a freemium game on iOS and Android spends $14 in any given transaction, according to their latest data. The same study already revealed that in-app purchases have overtaken standard purchases when it comes to ...

LookTel helps the blind count their money using an iPhone

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jul 14th, 2011)

Smartphone cameras are quite versatile. Some people used them to take pretty pictures, while others use them for the recognition of a face, product or an object. LookTel has taken this idea of object recognition and used it as the cornerstone of a new app called Money Reader. Money Reader ...

Free-to-play overtakes premium games revenue in the App Store

by Mike Schramm (Jul 7th, 2011)

The latest blog post from Flurry reports that free-to-play revenue has overtaken premium revenue in Apple's App Store. I think this was pretty much a guarantee at some point in the future, though it's happening probably a little sooner than most expected. Free-to-play gaming, where a game ...

Rovio picks up $42 million in first funding round

by Mike Schramm (Mar 10th, 2011)

Rovio, the makers of Angry Birds, has nabbed a total of $42 million in a first round of venture capitalist funding. This isn't necessarily quite that big a payday for the company -- while that's obviously a lot of money, the company has reportedly already pulled in about $70 million from app ...