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

February 13, 2014 Leave a comment

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

By Philip Elmer-DeWitt February 11, 2014: 7:50 AM ET

And at 34% year over year, it’s growing slightly faster says Asymco’s Horace Dediu.

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FORTUNE — Is Apple is 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 Google’s (GOOG) core business (i.e. without Motorola and “other”) against 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 group had “gross” revenues of $23.5 billion with growth of 34% year over year.

“On a yearly basis,” he writes, iTunes “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).”

 

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