Anything For You All: Twenty years after Steve Jobs released the iMac, Apple's famous line of computers account for only a tenth its business

Twenty years after Steve Jobs released the iMac, Apple's famous line of computers account for only a tenth its business

When Steve Jobs released the iMac in 1998, the bright-colored computer was a lifesaver for Apple, whose business was almost entirely based on Mac sales.

Twenty years later, Apple is a completely different company.

As this chart from Statista shows, the percentage of Apple's revenue attributable to Mac computer sales has steadily decline over the last two decades, shrinking to roughly one tenth of total sales last year.

Apple's Mac sales have actually increased year-over-year, with only a few marginal dips in the last two decades. But that steady growth pales in comparison to the growth provided by a succession of new hit products, from the iPod to the iPhone. Since 2000, sales revenue from Macs almost quadrupled but Apple's total sales revenue multiplied by tens of thousands, as the company released device after device and grew its app store. With almost every product release, the Mac's contribution to the top line diminished.

Read »