But the technology provided by the world’s most famous brand company does not come for free. Rather, it has become more like a fee that Apple collects in exchange for providing its own technology services, in addition to the fees that the company collects in exchange for providing services to other companies.
According to a report published by Bloomberg and reviewed by Sky News Arabia, Apple is valued at $3.4 trillion, more than any other company in the world.
Its revenues in 2023 (nearly $400 billion) will make it the size of the economy of countries like Denmark or the Philippines.
In the last quarter, Apple’s sales from digital services alone amounted to $24.2 billion, which is more than the combined revenues of Adobe, Airbnb, Netflix, Palantir, Spotify, Zoom, and Elon Musk’s X.
Although most of the business, according to the report, is related to iPhone sales or services provided on it, these numbers also come from the company’s influence. According to the report, critics claim that Apple these days is using technology to consolidate its power globally.
Through its App Store, Apple tightly controls massive platforms for digital communications, mobile finance, social networking, music, movies, transportation, news, sports, and much more.
These technologies and services are exclusively controlled by Apple and are only accessible to those who comply with strict Apple Store policies.
Whenever any product or service offered by Apple is purchased on its phones or iPads, the money passes through this company’s system, and Apple gets up to 30 percent of it.
According to a Bloomberg report, every time you wave your iPhone or Apple Watch in front of a credit reader to make a payment using contactless payment technologies via your smartphone or watch, Apple also gets a small share of the transaction value.
The report also explained that it has become necessary for large companies whose value exceeds a certain limit to “surrender,” as there is no real way to evade paying what has become known as the “Apple tax.”
This is partly due to the loyalty of Apple customers, but there is also another app store for smartphones on Google’s Android platform, which imposes similar fees and restrictions.
Google even pays Apple, transferring a portion of the ad revenue it generates on the iPhone as part of a deal that kept Google as the default search provider on Apple’s mobile web browser.
The value of these fees that Apple receives for providing these services amounts to about $20 billion annually, according to the report.
Previously, buying a computer also meant paying for the components, but now it’s a case of buying a very expensive device (at least $1,000 for the most advanced iPhones) and then spending hundreds of dollars on subscriptions and other add-ons, which are optional but increasingly required, the report said.
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