“Analysts tend to think of the iTunes store as a metaphor,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt for Fortune. “It’s a ‘moat’ that protects Apple (AAPL) from competitors. Or something “sticky” — like honey or flypaper — that keeps fickle customers from flying away.”
“But since Apple reclassified its revenues in January and consolidated iTunes, Software and Services into one line item, it’s become clear that iTunes is also a large and fast-growing business in its own right, one that generated $12.9 billion in fiscal 2012,” P.E.D. reports. “If iTunes had been listed separately in the current Fortune 500, it would have come in at No. 218, ahead of Texas Instruments, Nordstrom and Con Ed.”
P.E.D. reports, “iTunes estimates were optional in our quarterly polling, but so far we’ve received numbers from 40 analysts — 22 Wall Street professionals and 18 amateurs. Their estimates ranged from the high of $5.6 billion submitted by Jefferies’ Peter Misek to a low of $3.15 billion from Posts at Eventide’s Robert Paul Leitao, who runs the Braeburn Group of independent analysts.”
Check out the 40 analysts’ estimates in the full article here.