This was the year the iPod finally took off. The original version of the digital music player had been around since October 2001, and it had repeatedly won applause for its stylish design and ease of use. But until this year, the media acclaim had run far ahead of sales.
With the iPod’s status as a fashion icon assured, Jobs and Apple have continued to drive sales with constant promotion and fresh innovation. This has led to the 1,000-song mini iPod — even sleeker and more fashionable than its grown-up sibling, and just the right size for a girl’s handbag. More recently there has been the iPod photo, which besides music can store and display 25,000 pictures.
Sales have accelerated through the year, reaching 2m units and $537m in the third quarter. With many American and British teenagers putting an iPod at the top of their Christmas wish-lists, analysts are forecasting that sales in the Christmas quarter could double again to 4m units.
This growth is supported by, and is encouraging, a revolution in the music industry. Jobs was in London in June for the European launch of Apple’s iTunes online store, which has almost single-handedly created a market for the legal downloading of music over the internet.
Despite numerous attempts to replicate iTunes’ simple pricing, Apple claims it retains a 70% share of the market in legal downloads. Ten days ago the company announced that more than 200m songs had now been bought and downloaded from iTunes.
Combined, iPod and iTunes have transformed the profile of Apple’s business. After several years of flat sales, Apple’s turnover has doubled in 18 months — from about $6 billion to about $12 billion
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