UncleJohnK

Will Apple Beat 2009 Revenue Consensus?

Just to clarify deferred revenue by comparing it to the corporate Software Market... Most software is sold with a maintenance contract per year in the 20% range of the purchase price which is usually paid up front. Since it is a 12 month contract, it can only be booked monthly which makes sense since the work is performed over 12 months. The nice think is, the Cash arrives on day one. Apple's revenue stream is similar since they get a percentage of the carriers revenue over the life of the user contract, usually 2 years. I don't know if Apple gets the revenue up front, but its still a nice thing since the deferred revenue pot continues to grow as carriers sign more customers.