Apple financials show iTunes is fastest growing asset

Apple’s iTunes store has revealed itself as the jewel in its crown after the tech giant unveiled its quarterly financials overnight.

Apple reported revenues of US$37.4 billion and a net profit of $7.7 billion in the last quarter. The Q3 results are up from US$31.6 billion and US$6.9 billion in the same quarter last year.

While iPhone sales accounted for 52.7% of Apple’s revenue (Apple sold 35.2 million iPhones, up 13% year-on-year), Apple CEO Tim Cook said revenue from iTunes is coming on strong with the music store bringing in US$4.45 billion, up 12% from the same period last year.

“For the first nine months of this fiscal year, the line item that we call iTunes software and services has been the fastest growing part of our business,” said Cook in a conference call. “iTunes billings grew 25% year-over-year in the June quarter and reached an all-time quarterly high, thanks to the very strong results from the App Store.”

iTunes is currently the fourth most profitable ‘line item’ on Apple’s list, following closely behind iPhones, iPads and Mac computers, but while Apple’s $3.2 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics suggested a move toward streaming through Beats Music in May, the growth of iTunes has its Apps to thank, not its music. The App Store has passed 75 billion downloads with more than $20 billion paid out to developers.

The report also showed its fastest year-over-year growth was in China, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, where revenues rise 28% year-over-year.

The share value of Apple is up 26.4% from April’s report, giving it a predicted market capitalisation of US$571 billion (Billboard).