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5+ years on the market with 100 million players sold

Apple announced today that it has sold its 100 millionth iPod music player. The first iPod was launched in November 2001 and has gone on to become the "it device" when it comes to portable music players and commands over 75% of the digital audio player market. The iPod family has changed the way we view digital music and the signature white headphones can be seen everywhere from subways to gyms to college campuses.

"At this historic milestone, we want to thank music lovers everywhere for making iPod such an incredible success," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "iPod has helped millions of people around the world rekindle their passion for music, and we’re thrilled to be a part of that."

Apple notes that five and half years after the iPod introduction, over 4,000 accessories are custom tailored to the iPod and that more than 70% of 2007 model year automobiles available in the U.S. feature iPod connectivity. The company also signed up six airlines in November 2006 to provide in-flight iPod connectivity in individual seats.

Apple’s current family consists of the iPod, iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle. Prices for these players start at $249, $149 and $79 USD respectively.

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Market Share
By BMFPitt on 4/9/2007 12:14:14 PM , Rating: 2
It'll be interesting to see what happens to the iPod's market share once the DRM-free music starts hitting ITMS. Previously I wouldn't have anything to do with ITMS or iPod because of their highly restrictive and closed system, but I wonder if opening it up will hurt or help on the hardware front?

Right now I'm more inclined to look at a Zune, but if they fixed their battery issues I would consider an iPod.




RE: Market Share
By rrsurfer1 on 4/9/2007 12:17:28 PM , Rating: 4
Dunno, but sofar I have been much happier with my zune than I ever was with the iPod. It is a personal preference thing, I prefer the non-touch controls of the Zune. I used to have issues with the volume level changing because of the touch controls on the iPod, which forces you to ALWAYS use the lock switch...

I have to say that iTunes is far superior in my opinion to the Zune software though. It's gotten better in recent updates but I still prefer iTunes.


RE: Market Share
By rrsurfer1 on 4/9/2007 12:17:55 PM , Rating: 2
That was meant for the post below...


RE: Market Share
By BMFPitt on 4/9/2007 12:29:53 PM , Rating: 3
I also must say that it is an absolute requirement for me that I be able to manipulate files through Windows Explorer if I choose to. I have never met a sync program that i liked (same goes for digital cameras.)


RE: Market Share
By rrsurfer1 on 4/9/2007 2:46:25 PM , Rating: 2
Yea, you have to put up with this (for music) on the iPod as well as the Zune. Although for the Zune you can edit a registry key to give you access to the disk through windows explorer. This is too technical for the majority of consumers however.


RE: Market Share
By superzor on 4/9/2007 2:57:26 PM , Rating: 2
I'm using the creative zen vision w and I when I plug in my player, I get a removable disk icon under my computer likes its a portable usb thumb drive. I can simply drag and drop and not using any special software other then having the correct drivers.


RE: Market Share
By xsilver on 4/9/2007 11:45:44 PM , Rating: 2
while I used to have the same belief that being able to add songs using file explorer was handy it can get overwhelming when you have 20gigs of music and i tunes is rather handy/smart in mass renaming and organizing things.

is there is library software that is as intuitive as itunes?
the only thing i've found that can mass rename songs is "mp3tag" (with cddb support) but then it doesnt incorporate the playback features itunes has.

I think also the large library of accessories the ipod has is hard to beat.


RE: Market Share
By Bluestealth on 4/10/2007 12:55:20 AM , Rating: 2
I think iTunes is terrible, and have never really had any problems with using Winamp's library, although I haven't yet found a skin I am entirely fond of.
I really like small players that I can go running with, and I have to say I love my Zen Nano Plus because I can drag and drop. It makes it very easy to add/remove albums quickly, no syncing is lovely. I never really enjoyed the iPod interface and I am glad my iPod mini is dead.
I am not really big on "playlists", I will go to the song I want to shuffle through part of my archive, or listen to a single artist/album, thus syncing is effectively WASTED time for me, and the iPod doesn't give you any choice in the matter.


RE: Market Share
By SunAngel on 4/9/07, Rating: -1
RE: Market Share
By BMFPitt on 4/9/2007 12:36:39 PM , Rating: 5
I find your line of thought intriguing. I should ignore what other people are doing, and do what 100 million people have done? And then go out and buy something because a guy on a technology discussion site who is complaining that I am discussing technology said to?


RE: Market Share
By SilthDraeth on 4/9/2007 5:44:00 PM , Rating: 2
lol


RE: Market Share
By Spinne on 4/10/2007 9:10:46 AM , Rating: 2
Holy #*&%! Steve Jobs is here!


My MP3 player cost me $10
By giantpandaman2 on 4/9/2007 4:54:41 PM , Rating: 5
Sure it can't play video, but I have a laptop or, well, a TV for that.

Congrats to Apple, though, they've done an amazing job marketing a very nice piece of hardware. To this day, however, I'll never understand how people justify spending $250 just to play music or watch a ridiculously small video. I get that it's a "cool", "lifestyle" device, but, honestly, I still think it's foolish. I can see the uber-rich owning them, but when I see high school (and elementary school) kids running around with them who have never worked a day in their life, it makes me wonder how stupid we've become.




RE: My MP3 player cost me $10
By Oregonian2 on 4/9/2007 5:48:46 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
I'll never understand how people justify spending $250 just to play music or watch a ridiculously small video.


Actually we paid more like $800 for two 60G 5G's (wife's and mine -- although mine is now disappeared). Those small videos are a blessing on a 11 hour airplane flight. And it fits in my shirt pocket, unlike any laptop or TV I have.


RE: My MP3 player cost me $10
By giantpandaman2 on 4/9/2007 6:32:46 PM , Rating: 2
Well, to each his own, but here's what I'd do with that $800.

Buy a pair of decent concert tickets.
Go to a comedy club.
See a Mariners game.
Listen to jazz at a local club.
Go bungee jumping.

And spend the 11 hour flight talking with my wife or reading a book. Both things that I enjoy tremendously.


RE: My MP3 player cost me $10
By BMFPitt on 4/9/2007 6:45:54 PM , Rating: 3
I would spend $200 on a more practical media player, and pocket the other $600.

That's if I were pretentious enough to post how I would spend someone's theoretical $800, of course.


RE: My MP3 player cost me $10
By Oregonian2 on 4/10/2007 5:24:56 PM , Rating: 2
You can talk for more than 20 minutes on a plane before going hoarse yelling out loud trying to drown out the very loud plane noise? :-)

Actually flight end to end was 14 hours. In each direction. :-)

P.S. - I think I'd pay $800 just NOT to have to sit through a Mariners game. :-)


RE: My MP3 player cost me $10
By aurareturn on 4/9/2007 8:02:39 PM , Rating: 2
And how about people who spend $1000(early 6800Ultra and 7950GX2) on a graphics card just to turn the graphics setting a tiny bit higher? But still barely unnoticeable from a $250 card?


Hate Apple but......
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 4/9/2007 11:57:38 AM , Rating: 2
As much as I hate Apple and their lousy computers..... the iPod is a nice piece of hardware. I own one myself, and its quite easy to use, easy to sync.. (aside from vista not working right, which I was able to fix by dumping the iPod music folder out to my RAID drive instead of in the music folder...) and I can use all the pirated MP3's I want or Ripped Music from CD that I want. So yea...... props to Apple for finally making something decent in recent years.




RE: Hate Apple but......
By AntiV6 on 4/9/2007 12:00:23 PM , Rating: 2
+1

I can't stand OSX, but the 5G iPods are actually very nice. I wish that the battery lasted a little longer though.


RE: Hate Apple but......
By Johnmcl7 on 4/9/2007 4:22:02 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah, I wonder if their hardware sales would have been just quite so high if they had a removeable battery which was easily replaced...just been replacing a battery on an Ipod Mini which was a pain in the neck, if I hadn't done so the owner would have probably bought another Ipod.

John


RE: Hate Apple but......
By Oregonian2 on 4/9/2007 5:44:58 PM , Rating: 2
Ipod itself would probably have to be bigger though to accommodate the removal. Also have to use a different aspect ratio battery which would exacerbate the thickness problem as well (on the "big" ones anyway).

At least they improved how long things last in the current 5.5G ipods.

Mine "disappeared" but I'm waiting to see the 6G video iPod if it doesn't take too much longer. Sandisk's new video one looks like it may be good when it comes out one of these days...