The $45m headline number is a drop in the bucket compared to what Apple makes from selling iPhone and iPod Touch hardware. The crucial point this story misses i

The $45m headline number is a drop in the bucket compared to what Apple makes from selling iPhone and iPod Touch hardware. The crucial point this story misses is that Apple has generated a marketplace worth $50m-$112m in revenue for makers of iPhone apps, with an App Store that launched less than a year ago. This is huge. Compare that to the $100m "iPhone Fund" that Kleiner Perkins announced in March 2008 (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/06/kleiner-perkins-anounces-100-millioin-ifund-for-iphone-applications/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/06/kleiner-perkins-anounce...). This seemed like a lot at the time, eclipsing the $10m "fbFund" for Facebook Apps from Accel, which itself seemed big at the time (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/17/facebook-launches-fbfund-with-accel-and-founders-fund-to-invest-in-new-facebook-apps/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/17/facebook-launches-fbfun...). While $100m and $50-112m seem like comparable numbers, the difference between investment and revenues is huge. Think about it, would you rather have $100m in VC money or $100m in revenues (per year!) from customers? The biggest benefit to Apple is not the revenues they get from Apps. The biggest benefit is from the thriving community of iPhone app makers who are probably willing to spend on the order of $50-$112m of effort (per year!) improving Apple's platform. A platform worth $2+ billion/yr for Apple.