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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Monday, April 09, 2007

100 Million iPods Sold: Let's Look to the Next 100 Million

Apple celebrates an amazing milestone:

Apple today announced that the 100 millionth iPod has been sold, making the iPod the fastest selling music player in history. The first iPod was sold five and a half years ago, in November 2001, and since then Apple has introduced more than 10 new iPod models, including five generations of iPod, two generations of iPod mini, two generations of iPod nano and two generations of iPod shuffle. Along with iTunes and the iTunes online music store, the iPod has transformed how tens of millions of music lovers acquire, manage and listen to their music.

The iPod has also sparked an unprecedented ecosystem of over 4,000 accessories made specifically for the iPod that range from fashionable cases to speaker systems, and more than 70 percent of 2007-model US automobiles currently offer iPod connectivity.

Every iPod features seamless integration with iTunes 7. The iTunes Store features the world’s largest catalog with over five million songs, 350 television shows and over 400 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.

The market penetration of the iPod, combined with its support ecosystem of hardware add-ons, is a tech success story unlike few others. Only Windows, arguably, or the Sony PS2 during its several-years-long moment in the sun, saw such success. Absolutely astonishing.

Now, it's time to look ahead. Like many, I'm eager to see an iPhone-like video iPod, preferrably with a user-removable battery. I'd like to see more and better movie content on the iTunes Store, with lower-cost options to rent (and not own) content I'll only want to watch once. I want to see Closed Captioning and subtitle support on all TV and movie content, so my son and other hearing-impaired users can finally utilize this incredible service. I'd like an Apple TV that will let me browse and buy iTunes content from the couch, and utilize DVR functionality so I can watch live and recorded TV.

Put simply, there's still a lot of work to do. I'm excited for the future.

Labels: Apple, Digital media, iPod, iTunes

[ Posted at 9:27 AM | Permalink ]