Apple

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) today announced that its App Store broke sales records during the first week of 2015. Details of its banner 2014 were released as well.

New Year's day proved to be the App Store's biggest day in its history and, with around half a billion dollars generated by app and in-app purchases, the week that followed was a record breaker as well. 2014 saw a 50% increase in app sales, which resulted in $10 billion in revenue for developers. Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, praised the developer community: "We're so proud of the creativity and innovation developers bring to the apps they create for iOS users and that the developer community has now earned over $25 billion.” $25 billion is the total revenue for developers since the App Store opened in 2008, which means the app market is growing at a tremendous rate, as last year's revenue alone represents 40% of the total.

2014 was a banner year for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Its stock underwent a 7-to-1 split and then reached an all time high after the launch of the iPhone 6 and its phablet counterpart, the iPhone 6 Plus. iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite arrived and the Apple Watch was announced. Carplay debuted and Apple Pay was introduced and quickly became the largest mobile payment system in the known universe (in terms of registered credit cards). The company joined forces with IBM to launch IBM Mobile First for iOS, offering solutions for enterprise customers. Beats was acquired. Stock was bought back at an unprecedented rate and, although share prices have fluctuated a bit in recent weeks, the holiday quarter could be a record breaker.

Apple has plenty more up its sleeve for 2015; here are a few products and upgrades to look for:

Apple Watch - This is the most sure-fire item on the list. The Apple Watch has been highly anticipated since the first whispers of an "iWatch" made their way to the rumor mill. It was officially announced in September, but there still has been no official announcement of a launch date. In its official press release, Apple says it will be available in "early 2015" at an opening price of $349. Valentine's Day seems to be on a lot of radars, but whatever the case, we expect it before April.

'Twas slow for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) news last week; while there were several work days, I suspect the vast majority was still in holiday mode for the last few days of 2014 and the first couple of the new year. There were still several items of note though.

Apple's acquisition of Beats was further justified when Nielsen SoundScan released its year end statistics last week. The numbers showed a big trend toward streaming audio and a drop off in music purchases. According to the data, there were 164 billion streams in 2014, compared to 106 billion in 2013, a 54% increase. Album sales dropped 9%, to 117.6 million, while song sales dropped 12%, to 1.26 billion.

With 2014 drawing to a close, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) last week released its annual top apps lists. The three categories, Top 10 Paid Apps 2014, Top 10 Free Apps 2014 and Top 10 Highest Grossing Apps 2014, were topped by Heads Up!, Facebook Messenger and Clash of Clans respectively. Nine of the top ten highest grossing apps were "freemium" games, meaning they are free but offer in-app purchases.

According to the results of a Piper Jaffray survey that were released last week, demand for the iPhone 6 is higher now than it was pre-launch. Of the 1,004 consumers surveyed in December, 40 percent indicated that they were interested in purchasing the new iPhone. A similar survey conducted pre-launch showed 33 percent interest.

Despite holiday shopping being in full swing and the high demand for both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) supply appears to have caught up. According to AppleInsider, shipment time for the two devices has dropped to just one day as of last week. Additionally, the Retina 5K iMac ship time has dropped from one to two weeks to a couple of days.

Apple seeded iOS 8.2 beta 3 last Thursday. Though iOS 8.2 mostly deals with WatchKit and Apple Watch support, it also has added blood glucose tracking to the Health app. iOS 8.2 is expected to be released to the public at the same time as the Apple Watch launch, which will likely be sometime in February 2015.