Though it remains for the moment an unanswerable question, it is probably not too early to ask whether Apple's business model might change in the future, and at what pace.
Until recently, virtually all of Apple's profits were built on hardware sales. Everything else, system software or iTunes music revenue only mattered as a way to drive hardware sales.
The iPhone and iTunes are the best examples of how and where the change might come.
Apple might make $200 to $300 or so selling an iPhone, but $600 to $850 is more like the additional service revenue Apple receives from an AT&T iPhone sale, the difference being the value of the recurring service revenue Apple gets from AT&T, some analysts say.
For the 2009 quarter ending in June, Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones for a recorded revenue of $1.7 billion, or about $324 per iPhone.But iPhone-related service revenue was about$4.4 billion, compared to $3.3 billion in Mac sales. So at least for the moment, iPhone service revenues are a bigger revenue contributor than the Mac PC product line.
One wonders what will happen if Apple gets into the e-book reader business. What percentage of revenue might be earned from selling readers, or iPhones, compared to the recurring content business?
Apple could become a distributor and micro-payment agent for goods and services. All of this remains speculative, of course. It is not clear Apple always will be able to claim some portion of service provider revenues. But other content or application-related revenue streams might emerge to replace those recurring service revenues.
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