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Apple's Services division is the one bright spot in a down fiscal 2016

Apple's Services division is the one bright spot in a down fiscal 2016

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But Services still only makes up 11 percent of annual revenue

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During its earnings call today, Apple CEO Tim Cook put the focus on the company's Services division, which contains Apple Music, iTunes, Apple Pay, and the App Store, and grew 24 percent year-over-year in an otherwise down year for the company. Services has become Apple's second biggest revenue generator behind the iPhone over the past two years, and it's importance to the company as a diversified section in contrast to its hardware products has dramatically increased in that same timeframe.

Cook touted the expansion of Apple Pay, which has just been released in Japan, Russia, and New Zealand, and is coming to Spain next month. Transactions were up nearly 500 percent year-over-year, according to Cook, and the company completed more transactions in September than it did in all of fiscal 2015. Apple says Music revenue grew by 22 percent, but Cook didn't clarify how much of that revenue came from Apple Music or iTunes.

"We have almost doubled the size of our Services revenue in the last four years."

"We have almost doubled the size of our Services revenue in the last four years," Cook said on the call, noting that Apple expects the division to be the size of a Fortune 100 company in the next fiscal year. Given that Services pulled in $24.3 billion in revenue in the 2016 fiscal year, that goal will likely be met, as the division would currently land just short of the Fortune 100 list.

But right now, Services is still far from making a serious dent in Apple's earnings, making up only 11 percent of its annual revenue in fiscal 2016. There's no doubt at this rate Services will be a major player for Apple going forward, but in the immediate future, the focus for investors will stay on the iPhone until Apple's cash cow makes a turnaround.