Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook had a strong message on Monday when he addressed the company's global gathering of coders and computer scientists: Apple is the best place to earn money from making apps.

Cook announced that developers have earned $100 billion through the App Store as of this week.

Apple has had to manage its reputation with app makers carefully as it tries to squeeze more money out of each phone through selling software and services. It has competition — on Monday, for example, Microsoft announced a big investment in courting developers through the acquisition of platform GitHub.