p2pnet - rss feed: An Apple a day …
p2pnet.net News:- “The iTunes music store is the key driver to establish the iPod as the Walkman of the 21st century.”
The words belong to Pascal Cagni, Apple’s European boss, and they’re quoted in a Sunday Times article on Apple’s success in Europe - in the UK in particular.
iPod is unquestionably the device that’s turning Apple from a company trying to sell expensive computers to people in a relatively small market, to a 21st century phenomenon.
And mp3, the sound compression format loathed and feared by the entertainment industry, of which Apple is now by default a component, is, paradoxically, the driving force.
But what’s really interesting is the way in which the print and electronic media outlets are fuelling Apple’s rise.
Apple says its iTunes sales have reach some 150 million. Compared to what’s going on in the real world of online music - that’s to say on the p2p networks where more than a billion music files are moved every month - the number is trifling.
But thanks largely to Apple’s brilliant PR and marketing, ‘150 million’ has been enough to wow the mainstream media reps who, not at all incidentally, continue ignore the reality that p2p file sharing represents a primary communication, sales, marketing and distribution medium of the 21st century and not the criminal activity the entertainment industry’s multi-million-dollar ‘Kill p2p and sue file-sharers’ barrage makes it out to be.
“The latest quarterly results show that the iPod is approaching a ‘tipping point’ that will make it a genuine mass-market product,” says the Sunday Times. “And Christmas is just round the corner.”
It is indeed, as is Apple’s new flagship store in the Regent Street, London, shopping Mecca, which is expected to open in time for Christmas.
“The outlet, which will span 20,000 sq ft is expected to sell Apple’s entire product line including the iPod digital music player range and Apple notebooks and desktop computers,” says the Times Online.
iTunes was, and still is, a loss-leader for the iPod which is indisputably THE mp3 player. However, how long will be Apple hold on to its lead? Other product manufacturers are coming out with a stream of sexy digital media players able to handle both sound and motion, with audio and video coms to come.
Mobile, all-in-one is the future.
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See:-
key driver - Why the iPod will soon be calling the tune at Apple, Sunday Timnes, October 17, 2004
flagship - Apple stalks core London shoppers, Times Online, February 13, 2004
October 18th, 2004 at 9:02 pm
I guess technically you can’t call iTunes the loss leader since..
.. it’s turning a profit.
*Cha Ching!
Furthermore, my eMac wasn’t too expensive.. It cost about a grand.. my PC using friend spent 2 grand on his HP.. so what.. he’s plagued by hellish viruses all the time and his printer doesn’t work. Yay. What a great market! You think these people are really as obsessed with digital media as Bill Gates says they are? These people just want to have the computer run for a week without crashing! And you wonder why the Media Center PC isn’t selling..
.. Yes.. I said it. The HP guys are hawking iPods to PC users only and their sales (160,000 for a month) are disturbing.
Could it be that most of the people interested in playing with digital media are using Macs?!