Apple’s moneymaking source for apps, games, and more was having some issues on Monday. Reports of problems have spiked across social media, while Verge writers trying to access the App Store via iPhone, Mac, or iPad were seeing mostly blank spaces instead of descriptions and screenshots, but it’s now all working again.
Interestingly, staffers outside the US were able to use the App Store, despite the apparent outage. Downdetector has collected more than 2,400 reports of problems so far. MacRumors reports some users were having trouble with other services as well, including Apple Music and Apple podcasts, but they appear to be resolved.
Apple’s server status page doesn’t mention any known issues, and the company hasn’t yet responded to a request for comment, so it’s unclear how widespread the issues were or what might have caused them. A CNBC estimate using Apple’s own released data figured that, in 2022, Apple pulled in between $70 and $85 billion via the App Store on commissions from developers alone, so even a brief outage could be costly.
Update May 15th, 2:30PM ET: Updated to note the issues appear to be resolved.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
