CNN: Data analysis: How big is Apple's iPhone business? Bigger than the entire Microsoft

CNN has done some comparative analysis of Apple's iPhone business ahead of the much-anticipated iPhone 5. CNN found that if Apple's iPhone business were separated, it would become a Fortune 50 company, even larger than Microsoft's entire product line.

Apple iPhone revenue compared to Microsoft's entire revenue

Over the past four quarters, the iPhone has generated more revenue for Apple than all of Microsoft's product lines, including Windows and Office.

In the race for smartphones, Microsoft was first beaten by Apple and then fell behind Google. Since then, Microsoft has been playing catch-up in the smartphone market, and has so far not been successful.

If Microsoft had taken better advantage of its opportunity five years ago, would it be twice as big now? Would Apple be half its current size? It seems unlikely, but it is certain that the iPhone is the most important product in Apple's history.

iPhone accounts for a growing proportion of Apple's revenue every year

The iPhone now accounts for more than half of Apple's revenue. Even if you add up all the Macs, iPads, iPods, iTunes and App Store revenue, it still can't match the iPhone.

In the first six months of this year, Apple sold $389 billion worth of iPhones and $353 billion worth of other products and services.

The iPhone hasn’t been a major contributor to Apple’s revenue for long: In 2008, its first full year on the market, it accounted for less than 9% of Apple’s total revenue. Since then, the iPhone’s importance has grown rapidly, even after Apple began selling the iPad in 2010, another multibillion-dollar business for Apple.

iPhone sales vs Mac sales

For most of Apple's 35-year history, the Macintosh has been the largest and most important product in the business. Even more than a decade ago, when Apple was selling tens of millions of iPods per quarter, the iPod was still seen primarily as a "halo" product that could lure new Apple customers into buying Macs.

But no one considers the iPhone a non-core product. In the quarter when the iPhone 4S came out, Apple sold twice as many iPhones as it had ever sold iPods. In that quarter, iPhone sales revenue was seven times greater than Mac sales.

Last year, Apple sold nearly as many iPhones worldwide as there are households in the United States.

Apple App Store app downloads are growing rapidly

Apple initially did not allow third-party apps to run on the iPhone, but now, according to iSuppli, Apple's iTunes App Store will bring developers $4.5 billion in revenue this year. Apple collects a 30% share of these revenues.

It turns out that opening up the operating system to app developers is a good idea.

In just a few years, the third-party application model has grown to be very prosperous. When Apple first opened the iPhone to third-party applications in 2008, users downloaded only 10 million applications throughout the year. But the number of downloads has continued to rise since then. Since the launch of the iPhone App Store, the cumulative number of application downloads has reached 30 billion times.

Apple's App Store currently has 650,000 apps, the most of any mobile platform.