Apple Makes More From iTunes and Accessories Than Most Companies Do From Phones

An analysis by Asymco of Apple's newly-introduced revenue breakdowns claims that Apple made more money from iTunes and accessories sales alone than all other companies except Samsung made from phone sales during the most recent quarter.

asymco_itunes_phone_revenues
As noted in its latest earnings release for the first fiscal quarter of 2013, Apple's total revenues from iTunes and accessories amounted to over $5.5 billion - ahead of the total phone revenues of each of Nokia, Motorola, Sony, LG, RIM (now rebranded as BlackBerry) and HTC.

Analysis author Horace Dediu also notes that iTunes may be worth more to Apple than its Mac business within the current year.

iTunes+Accessories combined is a bigger business in terms of revenues than any of the other phone vendors except Samsung. iTunes is now Apple’s fourth largest business, having overtaken the iPod in revenues two years ago. iTunes growth relative to the Mac means that it could become the third largest business during this year.

The figures also make iTunes bigger than Microsoft's combined Xbox and Windows Phone divisions.

Meantime, Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt (via Business Insider) suggests that Apple receives around a billion dollars a year from Google in return for making Google the default search on iOS devices, up roughly tenfold from just three years ago. It had previously been believed that Apple had a revenue-sharing deal with Google, but Devitt believes Apple would have gone for the neater and less risky option of a flat fee per device sold.

The steep rise in value for the search deal is said to have been driven in part by Microsoft which has been becoming increasingly aggressive about making such deals for its Bing search engine but has yet to secure a partnership with Apple for iOS to make the switch.

Popular Stories

iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
ios 26 1 slide to stop

iOS 26.1 Brings Back 2007 Feature in New Way

Friday October 31, 2025 1:40 pm PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a small but helpful change for iPhones, and it could prevent you from running late to something important. Specifically, when an alarm goes off in the Clock app, there is a new "slide to stop" control on the screen for turning off the alarm. On previous iOS 26 versions, there is simply a large "stop" button, which could be accidentally tapped. The new ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

8 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
M5 MacBook Pro

Waiting for New Macs? Apple Just Shared Bad News

Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year. Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
ipad mini 7 feature blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Release Candidates

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
apple tv hd

Apple Launched Its Big New Vision for TV 10 Years Ago Today

Thursday October 30, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple launched the Apple TV HD, the Siri Remote, tvOS, and their accompanying App Store a decade ago today, marking a major overhaul of the device. The new vision for the Apple TV was unveiled on September 9, 2015 during Apple's "Hey Siri" event in San Francisco, where CEO Tim Cook introduced the device with the statement, "The future of TV is apps." The announcement represented a major...

Top Rated Comments

LittleStuffBull Avatar
166 months ago
This is the most confusing London Underground map I have ever seen.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
leo.andres.21 Avatar
166 months ago
Why was Samsung left off this chart?

Because they say iTunes + Accessories revenue is more than 'most' companies, not including Samsung, so there's no need to fit Samsung in this chart.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
japanime Avatar
166 months ago
Wow. Just wow. The foresight and pure genius of Steve Jobs continues to blow my mind. What a legacy.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Reelknead1 Avatar
166 months ago
Why was Samsung left off this chart?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bigcat318 Avatar
166 months ago
Why was Samsung left off this chart?

"iTunes+Accessories combined is a bigger business in terms of revenues than any of the other phone vendors except Samsung."

Because statistics are manipulated to prove the point you are trying to make.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
basesloaded190 Avatar
166 months ago
+1, or even +1,000,000.

Not to mention if you're going to talk about Apple's "music/app store and accessory revenue," then you would have to include other companies' as well. And something tells me Sony will win this argument.

Not sure if you understand what they are comparing here. iTunes sales versus total phone sales of other companies. If we were to include other companies' music and app store as well, then we would have to add in Apple's phone sales to continue to equal the comparison.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)