Lance Wiggs

Rod Drury asks what if Apple had major pre-paid revenue. They do have some – from the iTunes music cards. The cards are great for gifts, and also if you want to get content not available here – such as TV shows and movies. Whenever I’m in the US I pick up a card and use it in the ensuing months. Now that movies and TV shows are available I seem to be spending a lot more, so I need to get over there to get more cards…. (Movies and TV Shows are only on the US iTiunes store.)
Apple’s latest (aging) 10Q shows some pre-pay deferred revenue on their balance sheet – $634m in current and $300m in non-current. Overall deferred revenue increased by $152m over the September quarter, or $75m per quarter. Meanwhile iTunes store sales were part of the $485m “other music related services”.

My guess is that about $30-50m of deferred income increase per quarter is from pre-pay cards – which implies they are responsible for a good chunk of iTunes revenue.  Apple’s quarterly sales end April 2006 was $3bn, so it may not seem like much. But their net income in April quarter was $410m, so perhaps it is…