FORTUNE — The value of those 800 million iTunes accounts — most of them attached to credit cards — is starting to have an impact on Apple’s (AAPL) bottom line.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Apple’s online retail business has passed Staples’ (SPLS) and Wal-Mart’s (WMT) digital efforts to occupy a (distant) No. 2 spot after Amazon (AMZN).
Part of Apple’s 24% increase last year (to $18.3 billion) is due to an accounting change: For the first time, Apple threw online hardware sales into the mix alongside iTunes and App Store sales.
