A Penny Here, A Billion There

Do you know who that guy is with the animal?

He is Johnny Marks, the composer of Rudolph The Rednosed Reindeer.  He passed away in 1985,some 36 years after he wrote that perennial Christmas favorite.  People magazine estimated his estate's take in royalties in the $600,000-annual range to this day. After he spent some time writing the song, his overhead thereafter was close to nothing.  But the Big Checks keep rolling in.  (Song copyrights extend past the composer's death.)

  Why do we mention this little anecdote?  Because today various experts are saying that the new Apple iPhone Apple Pay function will do little to boost earnings;  Apple will earn 15 cents per $100 going through Apple Pay.  But the experts forget that aside from some accounting personnel, Apple will have little overhead in the making of this money.  The function is built into the iPhone and paid for by the phone's purchaser.  Thereafter it becomes like the cut Apple receives for iTunes sales or from App purchases.  Someone else does the work, Apple does the collecting.

Just like for a reindeer, those pennies will add up.