Like money on treesApple knows it has a cash cow, and it's got it by the ... err, throat. iTunes Music Store downloads will account for 5% of Apple's total revenues in 2006 according to an investment house analyst.
His reckoning works along the following lines: ?Assuming 133m iTunes downloads in the June quarter and applying that across the reported 6.2m iPod shipments, Apple is averaging 6.1 iTunes downloads per iPod - based on the entire iPod estimated installed base through June 2005. If we apply this 6.1x ratio to our cumulative iPod installed base estimates through 2006, iTunes downloads for 2006 would be 1.365bn."
Five percent may not seem like much, but when you consider that Apple's first quarter reaped in $295 million alone, the numbers start to add up. I can see why both Yahoo and Microsoft want to get in on the online music-selling business. This is some big money.
Article Link: iTunes to yield 5% of Apple's revenues in 2006
