Forget Nintendo, 'Pokémon Go' could be worth billions of dollars to Apple
We already know that Pokémon Go has caught the attention of the business world, with the value of Nintendo more than doubling thanks to its interest in the game.
It doesn't stop there.
The app could be worth a Wailord-sized $3 billion in revenue to Apple, thanks to the cut of any money the company takes from companies that operate in its app store.
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That is according to analyst Laura Martin at investment bank Needham & Co, who said in a note on Wednesday that Apple has even more Pokémon upside than Nintendo, especially if the game spawns a series of successful copycats.
"We think AAPL’s near-term economics are better than Nintendo’s, with lower risk because its upside is not tied to a single mobile game property," she wrote.
Martin compared Pokémon Go to Candy Crush, which brought in more than $1 billion in 2013 and 2014.
She noted that Pokémon Go's ratio of paid users to total users is 10-times higher than Candy Crush, and is already seeing better time spent by those users.
Apple takes a 30 percent cut of money spent on apps through its iOS devices. That's proving to be a lucrative deal, with Apple enjoying growth in China and emerging markets -- which could push revenue from iOS past $100 billion by 2020.
That growth will be particularly important as Apple faces an uncertain future around its hardware. Sales of its iPhones appear to have peaked, and its tablet and computer divisions aren't big enough to make much of a difference.
As a result, Apple's stock has been in a relatively steady decline, down 24 percent over the past year.
Martin concluded with a strong assertion that Apple is in a great position to benefit from what could be a new era for mobile gaming.
"We believe [Apple] deserves a richer valuation tied to Pokemon GO and upside from future mobile content hits because [Apple] has the wealthiest customer base of 1 [billion] mobile devices globally," Martin wrote.
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Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.
