Apple boasts 1 billion active devices, growing services business


Tim Cook from iMore's transcript of Apple's financial call:

Because our customers are very satisfied and engaged, they spend a lot of time on their devices and purchase apps, content, and other services. They also are very likely to buy other Apple products, or replace the one that they own [with a newer model]. And because of the enduring value of the device they're replacing is likely higher to be given or sold to someone who will also love and use it often.

So, as a result, our install base has been growing very fast, and has recently reached a major milestone, crossing 1 billion active devices for the first time.

That's a big number, but Apple CFO Luca Maestri went on to discuss what that means for Apple's service business. Apple defines its service business as revenue from the iTunes Store, the App Store, AppleCare, iCloud, and Apple Pay fees. For the fiscal last quarter, his service business generated $8.9 billion. For 2015, the service service business generated over $31 billion. This is a 23-percent increase over 2014.

Safe to say Apple has a successful business now just selling services and content to its customers.