Apple Hints at Monetizing Third-Party AI Apps as App Store Revenue Slips

Apple told investors on Monday that it sees a new way to make money from AI: third-party apps and partnerships. That was the whole reveal. Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh raised the idea on Apple's earnings call while discussing how AI could "contribute to revenue growth over time" — and then declined to say what any of it actually means.

The vagueness matters because Apple needs the money. The App Store sits at the center of Apple's services business, which remains at record levels overall. But regulatory pressure and a slump in mobile gaming have hurt services growth, and Apple's commission revenue has already taken measurable hits in key markets.

What did Apple actually say?

Parekh's comments came in response to a question about AI's potential contribution to revenue. His answer, quoted verbatim from the call: "On the product side, you know, we feel AI offers a compelling reason for customers to upgrade and switch in order to get the latest capabilities, and we also feel there's opportunities across third-party apps and partnerships as well as first-party opportunities."

He did not elaborate on what those third-party opportunities might look like. No product names. No timeline. No financial targets.

The statement is still notable. Apple has spent years framing its AI push around first-party features — capabilities that push customers to buy new iPhones. Explicitly naming third-party apps and partnerships as a revenue lever is a shift in how the company talks about AI in public.

Reuters reported Monday that investors are already speculating about one concrete version of this idea: Apple could profit by distributing third-party AI agents through the App Store and taking a cut of the revenue they generate. That is analyst and investor conjecture, not an Apple announcement. But it gives shape to what Parekh left unsaid.

Why does Apple need a new App Store story?

The App Store's economics are under siege from several directions at once, and the pressure is showing up in numbers.

Third-party estimates published in August suggested Apple had seen an 18% drop in U.S. commission revenue. Declines were also recorded in Brazil and Japan after those countries introduced new regulations targeting app marketplace practices.

The legal front has been just as consequential. Apple has traditionally controlled payments within its app marketplace tightly, taking a cut of all App Store transactions. A lawsuit by Epic Games ultimately forced the company to allow apps to redirect users to outside payment systems — a direct breach in the commission wall. Other legal challenges around the world have further hampered the business.

So the backdrop for Parekh's AI comments is a marketplace whose monetization model is being dismantled piece by piece, in courtrooms and legislatures, even as the services segment keeps growing overall.

How did the App Store perform last quarter?

Parekh addressed the App Store's struggles directly on the call. His framing: "We've also seen some factors that impacted the performance of the App Store, and during the September quarter, the performance on the App Store was similar to the prior year, and we had a record number of paid subscriptions with double-digit growth for third-party apps on the App Store."

That is a mixed picture. Flat year-over-year App Store performance, but record paid subscriptions. Double-digit growth for third-party app subscriptions — a rare bright spot, and possibly the thread Parekh was pulling at with his AI remarks.

The gaming weakness continues. "At the same time, we did see some headwinds in mobile gaming that we've talked about before, and expect to see those continue into the summer quarter," Parekh said. Mobile gaming has historically been one of the App Store's most lucrative categories, and its slump drags on the whole segment.

What is Apple forecasting next?

For the December quarter, Parekh gave a specific number: Apple expects services growth between 8% and 9%.

He also flagged what is baked into that outlook. "This outlook contemplates our best estimates on sequential headwinds, primarily from third-party licensing and the additional half percentage point of foreign exchange I just mentioned," Parekh said.

Two headwinds, named. Third-party licensing — a reference to deals such as the arrangement that pays Google for search placement, which faces its own legal jeopardy — and foreign exchange costs worth half a percentage point of growth.

Could AI agents become the next commission engine?

Here the record thins out, and that is the story. Parekh's "opportunities across third-party apps and partnerships" is a single sentence carrying a lot of strategic weight.

The investor logic reported by Reuters is straightforward: if AI agents become a major category of app — software that books, buys, and transacts on a user's behalf — then whoever distributes those agents sits on a new stream of transaction revenue. Apple distributes apps to well over a billion devices. A commission on AI-agent activity would look a lot like the App Store's original model, rebuilt on a new category.

That possibility collides with the very regulatory forces now cutting into App Store commissions. The Epic Games ruling already forced open Apple's payment walls in one jurisdiction. Brazil and Japan have regulated the marketplace directly. Any plan to take a cut of AI-agent revenue would invite the same scrutiny that has cost Apple an estimated 18% of U.S. commission revenue.

TechCrunch has reached out to Apple for more information and will update the story if the company responds.

For now, Apple has planted a flag: AI is not just an upgrade driver, it is a future services business. What that business looks like — agents, partnerships, subscriptions, or something unannounced — is the question investors will keep pressing in the quarters ahead.