In the last few posts I estimated the iTunes economy in some detail. In absolute figures, the revenues and cost structures of iTunes are substantial:

6.3 billion transactions in the last quarter

$4.6 billion consolidated revenues (including software & services)

$3.3 billion in content payments

$650 million in operating income

However, as a part of the entire Apple revenue model, iTunes appears to be a small contributor. The following diagrams shows where revenues came from and where they were spent during the last quarter

A few notes:

Click on image to enlarge. The graph was produced using an iPad and it is rendered at iPad retina resolution. The data covers only the Fourth Calendar Quarter of 2012. For scale reference, “Dev Payments” equals $1 billion (as marked.) When zoomed in, each pixel represents about $50 million (vertical dimension). Revenues shown are “gross” and therefore greater than reported. See post on iTunes Revenue Recognition. �The same reason affects the total Cost of Sales (COS). Sources of revenue are ranked according to size. Note that Music is higher than iPod or Peripherals and Apps are higher than Software. Different Cost of Sales components are also ranked by value. iTunes which is the sum of Music, App, Software, Video and books makes up about 7% of overall revenues but 10% of costs of sales and hence contribute about 4% (est.) of total operating margin.

A three year view of the same data is shown below: