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iTunes is now nearly half the size of Google’s core business

By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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February 11, 2014, 12:50 PM ET

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FORTUNE — Is Apple still a growth company? With the
Wall Street Journal
‘s question still hanging in the air, Asymco’s Horace Dediu has found a novel way to highlight a source of growth within Apple (AAPL) that is often overlooked.

In the attached chart, he’s stacked the revenue categories of Google’s (GOOG) core business (i.e. without Motorola and “other”) and compared them with the revenue components of Apple’s iTunes/Software/Services division.

Taking into account the 70% Apple pays app developers (which the company doesn’t report as revenue), Dediu figures the iTunes group had “gross” revenues of $23.5 billion with growth of 34% year over year.

“On a yearly basis,” he writes, “iTunes/Software/Services is nearly half of Google’s core business and growing slightly faster.

“The iTunes ’empire’ of content and services would be ranked as number 130 in the Fortune 500 ranking of companies (slightly below Alcoa and above Eli Lilly).”

LINK: Asymco: Fortune 130

About the Author
By Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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