This one chart shows how ridiculously profitable Apple has become

(Image credit: CC by: U.S. Mission Geneva)

last updated 8 January 2015

On Tuesday, Apple reported a better-than-forecast $7.7 billion in quarterly profits, on $37.4 billion in revenue. Apple's iPad sales declined somewhat in the quarter, but the 35.2 million iPhones it sold clearly made up the difference — and more than half of Apple's quarterly revenue. "We're thrilled with the results, and we're thrilled with where we are going," Apple CEO Tim Cook tells The Wall Street Journal.

Apple's $37 billion in quarterly revenue, including $19.8 billion in iPhone sales, didn't impress investors much — the company's stock rose only a hair in after-hours trading — but they are impressive numbers. How impressive? At Slate, Jordan Weissmann looked at how big various Apple divisions would be if they were stand-alone companies. The supposedly struggling iPad unit's $5.89 billion in quarterly revenue makes it bigger than the combined earnings of Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, LinkedIn, and Tesla. But the real eye-opener is when you look at how Apple's iPhone division would fare on its own:

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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