[eesmith]

I think you are using gross sales?

We can see from Apple's 2024Q4 10-Q that "Revenue" is described as "Net sales", and that Q4 had $8 billion for the IPad, so about $32 billion for the year - comparable to the prediction of "$30 billion ad business by 2026".

Total net sales in Q4 was $124 billion of which $26 billion was services (where ads and Google income are placed).

The $4 billion was from a few years ago. The actual number doesn't seem to be published, but the numbers seem more like 7-8 billion, which is about 5% of revenue, not less than 1%.

[voidspark]

Sorry I don’t understand what you are trying to say.

Apple’s 2024 revenue was $391 Billion. Advertising is therefore about 1% of their revenue. Simple mathematics.

"Total net sales" is $391 Billion. $295 Billion from products plus $96 Billion from services.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/fy2024-q4/FY24_Q4_Consol...

Don't confuse quarterly with annual revenue.

Quarterly is just for three months. Four quarters within a year. Apple's fiscal (financial) year ends in September.

[eesmith]

What number are you using for advertising revenue?

If "Investment bank Evercore ISI estimates Apple will have a $30 billion ad business by 2026" is correct, then $30 billion/$391 Billion is over 7%.

If we go by the 2022 publication number (so likely from 2021) of $4 billion then yes, that's about 1%.

I can't find concrete numbers. https://www.emarketer.com/chart/260183/apple-ad-revenues-wor... has 10 billion in ad revenue for 2024, which would put it at 3% last year.

https://www.investors.com/news/technology/apple-stock-advert... says "he sees Apple's global ad revenue hitting $19 billion by 2026" which would be 5%.

[voidspark]

You said 4 billion

2026 is in the future. Doesn’t exist yet in reality

I don’t really know what point you’re trying to make now

[eesmith]

$4 billion in an Oct 20, 2022 article, with evidence that it's increased noticeably since then (because the 10-Q says so).

I don't think dividing the pre-Oct 2022 ad income by the 2024 revenue is all that meaningful.

[voidspark]

So what? Then it's at 2% now?

It's an insignificant part of their business even if it doubled or tripled in size.

Apple is obviously not "an advertising company" as opposed to Google which has been an advertising company since the beginning.

Apple was founded as a computer company ~50 years ago which sold the Apple I. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Nothing to do with ads. Now 50 years later they are starting to make some extra money on the side from ad revenue.

[eesmith]

I'm saying that <1% is not the right way to look at things, but the real point is "You can both pay for a service and be the product."

You won't call them an ad company until it's 50% of revenue. I understand that.

But if Alphabet were to buy UnitedHealth Group, so that Alphabet's ad revenue were under 50%, Alphabet would still be an ad company.

The newspaper which I subscribe to is also an ad company, because they sell ad space.

The radio station I listen to most is not also an ad company, because it's a volunteer-run, listener-funded station.

My company is not an ad company because it only gets revenue from product sales and consulting services.