Apple Thoughts: Analyst: App Store Isn't Equaling Cha-Ching

"It must be a measure of how divorced from reality the US financial establishment has become when one of its most venerable voices discounts $20 - $45 million as ‘not a lot of revenue.’ That’s the figure range Jeremy Liew, an analyst at Lightspeed Venture Partners, estimates would be Apple’s take from sales on the first 1 billion iPhone and iPod Touch applications downloaded through the iTunes App Store."

A: This is an analysts estimate based on some suppositions that he has no basis for except for being educated guesses.

B: Even if Apple makes $3 over the course of the App Store, it is selling iPhones. No question about it. It's such a good idea that every other company is scrambling to imitate it.

Not everything has to generate billions in revenue to be a success. (Lonnie Lazar makes similar points in the linked article).