Pundits fear that blogs are making the world a more difficult place for mainstream media, this is a perfect example; the NY Times reporting on things the blogosphere has long established and followers of bloggers are already well aware of: <i>iTunes makes a lot of money</i>.
i have no doubt itunes is a money maker for apple. not only that, but it will make more money as they add more users. the hardware costs are fixed and the r&d is also fixed.<p>the point about $0.25 being eaten up per transaction get more upsetting as your average amount per transaction decreases. i doubt highly that itunes avg transaction amount is closer to $0.99. i would wager it is between 5 and 10 on the conservative side.<p>furthermore, itunes is good for the economy in general as noted in my post on markets, <a href="http://siculars.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-markets-if-innovation-is-lifeblood.html" rel="nofollow">http://siculars.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-markets-if-innovati...</a>.