Apple makes a ton of money, that much is obvious, but iTunes would do pretty well for itself if it were left to stand on its own two feet. Asymco has been crunching some numbers based on recent earnings reports that would see iTunes rank at 130 in the Fortune 500 if it were considered independently of Apple:
Growth in the iTunes Store, which includes the App Store, the Mac App Store and the iBooks Store, was driven by increases in revenue from App sales reflecting continued growth in the installed base of iOS devices and the expansion in the number of third-party iOS Apps available.
It's important to note that media sales such as music, TV shows and movies was "relatively flat" so the respective App Stores are pushing the numbers up nicely. It's easy to get wrapped up in hardware sales and forget that Apple also has an extremely successful content business under it.
So that's the numbers, but what about your own iTunes story. Have you found yourself using the iTunes Store more in recent times? Sound off in the comments!
Source: Asymco
Reader comments
Just how big a business is iTunes for Apple?
Yeah, I use iTunes a lot. I have no cable or satellite bill.
130th in the F500 huh... But haven't you hears what an incredible dissapointment aapl was over the holidays ...?! How can it be? ;)
Apple made more money than Samsung, Google, motorola, LG, sony, Nokia and HTC combined.
It's devices what matter (I just wish I had invested on AAPL, back in 2003 when I read this)
"...Jobs has one more reason not to be concerned about the competition. "The dirty little secret of all this is there's no way to make money on these stores," he says. For every 99 cents Apple gets from your credit card, 65 cents goes straight to the music label. Another quarter or so gets eaten up by distribution costs. At most, Jobs is left with a dime per track, so even $500 million in annual sales would add up to a paltry $50 million profit. Why even bother? "Because we're selling iPods," Jobs says, grinning."
Source: Invention of the Year - Best Inventions of 2003 - TIME http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1935038_1... #ixzz2t2R9LReS
I suppose that I use it as much as I ever have. :D
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I use iTunes less and less. But it powers the ecosystem and my backups of 5 devices.