Apple has paid out over $20 billion to developers thus far

Apple's earnings conference call last week gave Tim Cook and newly minted CFO Luca Maestri the opportunity to provide us with more details regarding all facets of the company's business.

One of the more interesting tidbits to emerge during the call is the fact that developers on the App Store have cumulatively earned over $20 billion in revenue. Even more striking is that nearly half of that amount was earned in the last 12 months alone.

Despite Android's continued growth, the Google backed platform simply can't compete with iOS when it comes to cold hard cash paid out to developers. The $20 billion payout figure is undoubtedly impressive, but what I find all the more impressive is that Apple now generates more money on the App Store in a 12 month period than it generated during the App Store's first four years combined.

Here's a brief over view of Apple's payout to developers.

Apple initially reached the $1 billion mark in June 2010, almost 2 years after the App Store launch. One year later, that figure reached $2.5 billion. By June 2012, nearly 4 years after the App Store launched, Apple announced that it had paid developers $5 billion. Just 2 years later, that figure has increased by a whopping $15 billion.

As a point of interest, Google announced during this year's I/O conference that it has paid out $5 billion to developers over the last 12 months.