Steve Jobs' Greatest Hits

I�m Brian Cooley with Top 5: Steve Jobs Greatest Hits, the top money makers from his second tenure at Apple, basically the �i� era. Let�s see which of Apple�s products are most responsible for making it more or less the most valuable company in the world. #5 iPod Yes, the bottom rung is where you now find Steve Jobs critical first foray outside of computers, the iPod. This was the device that started the Apple�s march toward what it is today, maker of an array of digital living products -- it dropped the word �computer� from its legal name in January 2007 -- but iPod is now Apple�s only declining business, down about 6% in the most recent report, and about half of those sales are iPod Touch. #4 is iTunes. This lowly ranking might surprise a lot of people. iTunes for media and apps looms large in our minds and is one of the truly unique innovations of the Jobs �i� era, but its sales are, like the iPod, only around 5%-6% of Apple�s revenue and until recently was basically just a break even business. Now, unlike the iPod, iTunes is a growing business and here�s a hint why: , iTunes sold 10 billion apps in less than half the time it took to sell that many songs! And the internet video era in living rooms hasn�t even really kicked in yet. #3 is the Mac, line: Macbooks, iMacs and Pros. Now we�re getting into the real money, something like 18% of Apple�s business and growing about 23% over the last year, Jobs must be especially proud of this category because its where Apple was always ridiculed as a niche player back in the day. Today OS X has about 15% market share in the U.S. - - Switzerland is the #1 Mac OS country, BTW -- but Apple has 91% market share of computers over $1,000! #2 is the device they called a toy, the iPad. It�s Apple�s biggest growing product by far, something like 600% growth in the last year, and will go down in history as Jobs� last product as boss at Apple. Its about 21% of Apple�s business today and even with dozens of competitors will command over 60% of the market through 2011. When consumers are asked which tablet they are considering, 95% say iPad. I don�t think the numbers are quite that high for the Playbook. Before we get to #1, here�s a huge hit from Apple you can�t buy: Their stores. They now have over 310 of them, turning out the highest revenue per square foot in the retail chain business -- something like 7 times the dollars per square foot as Best Buy and almost double TIFFANY stores for crying out loud. #1 if, of course, the iPhone. But a lot of people don�t realize by how much. It�s nearly half the business at Apple, and combine it with iPad and that�s basically the company. But with that in mind, you can see why the battle with Android is likely the one Jobs is most disappointed he won�t lead the company through. Android phones now have 41% market share to iPhones 27% and Android is growing its share some 3x faster. But in terms of dollars, nobody makes as much money off a single phone as Apple. So those are Jobs greatest hits, a pretty damned impressive album. BTW, don�t miss my related Top 5: Apple�s Flops, that�s over at Top5.cnet.com