Apple Gets the Credit (And the Cash) for Growth of Mobile Computing Revenue

What would the mobile computing industry (defined for this purpose as smartphones and tablets) be without Apple, had the company not entered it in June of 2007 with the iPhone? Less lucrative, that’s what.

Charting the industry’s performance over the past five years, Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt figures its revenue in the fourth quarter of 2011 — $71.4 billion — is about twice what it was in the fourth quarter of 2007 — $37.9 billion. But remove Apple from the picture, and that revenue declines — dramatically. Turns out that without Apple, the mobile computing industry’s revenue in the fourth quarter of 2011 would be about what it was in the fourth quarter of 2007. What seems to be happening is that the bulk of the industry’s revenue growth is accruing to Apple, and because the company has the highest margins around, that’s where most of the profit is ending up, as well.