Thanks to Tim Cook's comments we know now Apple's 'wearable' business is at least $5 billion (AAPL)

Apple CEO Tim Cook isdeliberately obtuse when describing how wellthe Apple Watch is selling. This is the most notablemajor new product Apple hascreated under his stewardship.He's never released revenue or unit sales. However, during the company's quarterly earnings call with analysts on Tuesday he gave a hint. He said that Apple's wearable business, which includes the Watch, Beats headphones and the new Airpods, is now "the size of a Fortune 500 company."OK, then. Burlington Stores is No.500 on the Fortune 500 list, with just over $5.1 billion in annual revenue.So Cook is saying the combined annual revenue of its "wearable" products is at least $5 billion.Later he emphasized that over the past 12 months, these combined products were "well into the Fortune 500" suggesting that the business could be even bigger than the $5 billion base assumption.But exactly how much of that mysterious revenue number of more than$5 billion is from sales of the Apple Watch versus, say, the Beats headphones, which had about one-third the$2.5 billion headphone market in 2016, according toNPD'Cook's remarks were carefully construednot to reveal that.The Watch keeps tickingWe do know that Apple's "other" category of products, which includes these products plus Apple TV, iPod and Apple-branded and third-party accessories, came in at $2.87 billion for the quarter and just over $4 billion for the quarter before that. So nearly $7 billion so far this year.Cook did saythatApple Watch sales nearly doubled year-over-year and that "Watch units have more than doubled in 6 of our top 10 markets, which is phenomenal growth, particularly in a non-holiday quarter."While there's a general sense that Watch has been sort of a dud, he insisted thatWatch is both a success and a product that Apple plans to keep selling for a long time."Watch has been a key category for us. We're really proud of the growth of the business," he said. "We're very committed to it. It's already abig business andwe believe over time it will be even larger."Meanwhile, market researcher Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies estimates Apple sold around 3.2 million Watch units.So Apple Watch units were likely around 3.2m units last quarter.' Ben Bajarin (@BenBajarin) May 2, 2017SEE ALSO:How Cisco bought a $900 million startup for just $610 millionJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: The newest flying car is backed by Larry Page ' and you can buy it by the end of the year
Click here to read full news..