Apple's Financial Gain From The iPhone [Infographic]

For a few years now, it has been hard to see all of the other smartphone options due to the iPhone’s dominance. When it comes to the most popular OS, the story is a whole different one though. However, there’s no doubt the iPhone has had a pedestal position when it comes to the features and what people like to talk about. It’s not rocket science though. Apple has been quite good at promoting and marketing their gear, especially when Steve Jobs was at the helm of Apple. Their latest keynote got both rave reviews and some harsh ones as well. This is especially true when it comes to the iPod Nano upgrade, which I still can’t shake for some reason. I should mention though that Apple’s financial gain from these keynotes, especially from the iPhone, is anything but small.

It shouldn’t be too hard to understand that the reason why Apple is now making somewhat incremental upgrades to the iPhone is because it’s purely a financial strategy. Apple’s financial gain is much thanks to the iPhone’s revenue, which stands for over 40% of Apple’s entire revenue stream. With that much on the line, it’s easy to see why they are taking what we all would call baby steps when releasing new versions of their cash cow, the iPhone.

In a new infographic from Protect Your Bubble, called Smartphones Impact On The World, we see a clear picture of why Apple is the subject people like to talk about the most. There are 1.8 billion smartphones in the world, and Apple has sold an insane percentage of them. In 2011 alone, Apple sold over 75 million iPhones, which resulted in Apple filling their spendable cash vault up to about $97 billion. As you can see, the financial gain is not exactly small potatoes in comparison to what all the other products are bringing in.

There’s no doubt Apple’s financial gain is huge when it comes to the iPhone, and with the iPhone 5 recently released, their financial gain is not exactly going to be fading anytime soon. However, I think the question everyone is asking themselves right now is what is Apple going to do as far as innovative research for future iPhone features with the money they have been able to save up? It’s something needs to come out sooner or later in order to keep the iPhone fanatics holding on to their favorite gadget.

The financial gain that Apple is continuously revitalizing stems from hard work and perfection starting from the initial idea stage. When it comes to Apple, nothing is done by chance. Everything is planned carefully and orchestrated after strict and iron tight guidelines. However, how much do these rules and regulations affect the innovative thinking of the workers over in the Apple lair? I guess only the future will tell, but I am quite sure that we will see a couple more incremental upgrades before we will see something really innovative and fantastic added to the iPhone. What do you think? Has Apple taken a too mainstream approach to innovation since Steve Jobs left?