iPhone is bigger than all of MicrosoftAs the iPhone 5 launch date approaches, here's a look at just how critical the iPhone is to Apple's success.
With the release of the iPhone 5 expected to come Sept. 12, we were wondering: Just how big is the iPhone?
On its own, Apple's iPhone business would be a Fortune 50 company.
It's also bigger than all of Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500). Not just Windows or Office -- the iPhone generated more sales than the entirety of Microsoft's product lineup over the past four quarters.
Microsoft famously got kicked to the curb in the smartphone race by Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and subsequently Google (GOOG, Fortune 500). It's been forced to play catchup ever since ... so far unsuccessfully.
Had Microsoft played its cards better five years ago, would it have been twice the size it is today? And would Apple be half as big? That seems unlikely, but what's clear is that the iPhone is the most business-crucial product Apple has ever released.
The iPhone is now the source of more than half of Apple's overall sales. Add up all the revenue brought in from the Macintosh, the iPad, the iPod, iTunes, and the 30% cut Apple gets on apps sold in its App Store, and that still doesn't reach the amount it rakes in on the iPhone.
In the first six months of this year, Apple has sold $38.9 billion of iPhones and $35.3 billion of other stuff.
It wasn't always that way: In calendar year 2008, the iPhone's first full year on the market, the smartphone accounted for just under 9% of Apple's overall revenue. The iPhone's importance has been rapidly growing since then, even after Apple started selling the iPad in 2010 -- another multi-billion dollar product.
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