Comment by simonh

Right, the App Store is worth half a trillion a year just in raw billings and sales alone. That’s double Apples own revenue. The value of free services on top of that, where the value is captured in other ways which is most of the companies you listed, is likely of the same order or even significantly more. If so that all adds up to a decent multiple of Apple’s own revenue. Maybe 3x to 5x depending on what assumptions you make.

This is why competing phone platforms can’t get any traction against iOS and Android. You’re not just competing with Apple and Google, you’re competing with the entire ecosystems of companies and services on those platforms which combined are worth far more, and have aggregate resources far exceeding those of even Apple and Google.