Macworld - USA (2019-10-B)

10 MACWORLD OCTOBER 2019

MACUSER HOW APPLE REINVENTS ITS CORE BUSINESS

Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones during the
period, and a staggering 11 million iPods.
Overall, the iPhone represented 38
percent of Apple’s business, and the iPod
13 percent.
Apple’s business was also much
larger overall. The fourth quarter of
2009 generated $11.5 billion in revenue,
more than four times the quarter five
years earlier. And as for profit? The
profit had started to flow in torrents. In
the fourth quarter of 2009, Apple
generated $2.2 billion in profit. The
money was finally rolling in.

2014: iPODS FADE, iPADS
REPLACE
By 2014, Apple more closely resembles the
company we see today. The iPhone domi-
nates revenue, with 53 percent of the
overall total. The iPod has faded away—its
sales are so small (2.9 million) that Apple
has hidden their revenue inside the “other
products” category, which itself only makes
up 5 percent of the total pie. Replacing it as
a revenue engine is the iPad, which contrib-
utes 16 percent to the total. The Mac, now
selling a staggering 4.4 million units (
percent more than five years earlier!),
contributes 15 percent to the total.
Apple’s business exploded between
2004 and 2009, but it’s nothing compared
to the inflation between 2009 and 2014.
During the third quarter of 2014, Apple

generated $37.4 billion in revenue—three

times what it did five years earlier!—and

$7.7 billion in profit.

2019: THE RISE OF THE REST

That brings us to the most recent quarter, in

which Apple generated $53.8 billion of

revenue and $10 billion in profit. While it’s

true that iPhone sales are slumping, Apple’s

general profit and revenue trajectory

continues upward, albeit in fits and starts.

The iPhone dropping to 48 percent of

Apple’s total revenue is, in part, because of

the rapid growth of the Wearables (formerly

Other) category, as well as the ongoing

growth of the Services line.

Meanwhile, let’s not sleep on the Mac

and the iPad. The 11 percent and nine

percent of revenue they generate may

Apple Q3 2014

REVENUE BY CATEGORY

5%

12%OTHER

SERVICES

15%

MAC iPHONE53%

16%

iPAD