Apple Inc.’s (AAPL.O) App Store revenue is expected to top US$46 billion this year, according to the mobile app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, which provided an estimate to BNN Bloomberg. 

The figure represents a 21 per cent increase in App Store revenue from 2017 and highlights growth of more than 350 per cent in the past five years.

Apple’s business model is increasingly shifting to focus more on services revenue generated by the more than 1.3 billion iPhones, Macs and iPads that are currently in use around the world.

Apple recently rattled investors when it announced it would no longer provide specific iPhone sales figures, prompting fears a hardware sales slowdown is on the way. 

Some analysts note Apple is offsetting slower iPhone sales growth with higher-priced phones, which boost profit.  Apple can also increasingly rely on the revenue generated from the App ecosystem. 

There are currently more than two million apps in Apple’s App Store.