Where Apple's money comes from

According to a report of Asymco, the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch collectively generated sales of about US$17.3 billion which accounts for 65% of Apple's overall sales in its latest reported quarter. Of the three iOS devices, the iPhone and iPad combined for $15 billion in revenue while the iPod generated $2.3 billion. This is an impressive, but not surprising, set of figures for a trio of devices that are less than four years old.

There is little doubt that the iPhone and iPad lead the pack in their respective categories. Looking back over the past year, both the iPad and iPhone 4 experienced shortages due to overwhelming demand for these two iOS products. Long lines dominated iPhone 4 launches around the world and Apple itself confirmed that it could have sold more iPhones if supply was more abundant. The iPad dominates the tablet market has won accolades from Walt Mossberg and even Oprah.

While iOS dominated quarterly sales, the remainder of Apple's revenue comes from OS X-based products (20%), OS X software which includes both the operating system and the software Apple develops for it (3%), iTunes music sales (2%) and accessories and other products not related to software (10%). Based on the figures, 90% of Apple's sales is derived from hardware and software powered by OS X or iOS and only a mere 10% of revenue comes from the sales of other non-OS products. Even the naysayers cannot deny that Apple has built an empire on the success of its two core operating systems.

[Via Fortune]