2010 in review: Apple as a business

31.12.2010

In the 2010 fiscal year, Apple sold 40 million phones, a 93 percent jump over 2009. During September, the company says it passed the 125 million mark for cumulative iOS sales of its iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch offerings.

Not all of Apple’s product lines are growing. The iPod segment continues to shrink, owing to a saturated MP3-player market. But the iPod’s share of the MP3 player market in the U.S. continues to top 70 percent, according to research firm NPD’s figures. With a new iPod nano and the beefed up iPod touch, the iPod is set up for a strong holiday 2010 quarter.

Overall, Apple is a collection of several different businesses, largely growing, but at different rates. If you plot a chart of total revenues across Apple’s different product lines, it’s apparent that for all the sturm and drang about the Mac’s role at Apple, the Mac business continues to grow in revenue, despite a dip during the recession year of 2009. Other revenue, including software sales and iTunes, is growing at a slower pace, but still growing. And the iPod line, after peaking in fiscal 2008, seems to have flattened out.

The two areas where Apple sees astronomical growth are in the iPhone and iPad lines. In just six months of sales, the iPad came close to eclipsing the iPod and “other revenue” categories. And in just four years, the iPhone’s sales have shot into the stratosphere, accelerating even more in 2010 and passing the $20 billion mark in revenue all on its own.