“Third-party applications will differentiate the iPhone from a growing number of its smartphone competitors, according to Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey,” Jonathan Ratner reports for The Financial Post.
“‘We think that Apple’s use of Mac OS X on the iPhone, which is the same operating system used with Macs, combined with Apple’s software development toolkit (SDK) specifically designed for the iPhone, provides a more robust application development environment for developers,’ he told clients,” Ratner reports.
“The App Store’s layout and distribution system should result in a better user experience and drive higher adoption rates than existing platforms, Mr. Bailey said… He expects to see small ‘widget-like’ applications offered for free or at costs ranging from 99¢ to $2.99, along with large and more sophisticated applications likely between $19.99 and $29.99,” Ratner reports. “Apple retains 30% of this revenue, while developers get the other 70%.”
“The App Store will make a [significant] contribution to Apple’s earnings in 2009, with roughly US$120-million in incremental net revenue and US10¢ in earnings per share. He expects these numbers will climb to around US$280-million and US20¢ in 2010,” Ratner reports. “Goldman sees the active installed base for the iPhone climbing from around 2 million at the end of 2007 to roughly 9 million by the end of 2008, jumping to approximately 20 million and 30 million by the ends of 2009 and 2010, respectively.”
Full article here.
Wherever you see “iPhone,” add “iPod touch.” Then extrapolate. 
