RSSIs Apple's iTunes really the 'number one music retailer?'
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published June 23, 2008, 6:03 PM
Some two-and-a-half months after its first declaration, Apple on Friday once again declared itself the "number one music retailer in the US," this time also proclaiming Apple's iTunes "the world's most popular online movie store."
In a press release dated last April 3, Apple claimed to have surpassed Wal-Mart in terms of tunes sold to consumers, referring to data from the NPD Group's MusicWatch survey for January and February 2008 to support that contention.
At the time, Apple said iTunes had sold over four billion songs over the past five years from a music catalog which had reached a volume of six million songs, and that Apple had surpassed Wal-Mart as the "number one music retailer" in the country.
Then on Friday, June 19, Apple sent out another press release, again using NPD's statistics for the January-February time frame to characterize iTunes as the "number one music retailer in the US." In this second statement, however, Apple's tally of tunes sold increased by one billion songs to five billion, while the size of its music catalog grew to 8 million tunes.
Apple also maintained on June 19 that iTunes customers are now renting and buying more than 50,000 movies per day.
In both statements, Apple said that its claims as "number one music retailer in the US" are derived from NPD data about "the amount of music sold during January and February 2008."
If iTunes has indeed sold another 1 billion tunes to consumers over the past 75 days or so, the online music store must have averaged around 16 million song downloads per day.
Apple's numbers around iTunes have shown some discrepancies in the past, however. In August of 2007, Apple reportedly said it had five million songs in its online catalog. By late April of this year, the company had raised this number to 10 million, before bringing it down again from that level.
Apple spokespersons were not immediately available for further comment.
Typical Apple. Change the numbers around and hope nobody will notice. The arrogance is laughable. This is like a magazine company telling me they have a 2 million circulation, but give away 600,000 free 1 year subscriptions.
I had I tunes on my puter for 2 hours. Never again.
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|Yup, Apple.
Not at all like MS and their inflated Vista sales numbers.
Whats funny is listening to anyone who is playing around with MP3 or similar files on their computers.
But then we are talking about IT professionals - aren't we???? LOL!
"My gamebox is better than yours...is not...is...is not...is...is not..."
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|He never compared them to *accurate* MS Numbers?
Just looking for a cheap shot at microsoft are we?
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|when was last time M$ claim they are #1 in anything?
with 3% global market share, apple has to find a way to claim mac is # 1 sale in the pc vs mac ads. How stupid is that?
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|Apple and Steve Jobs are #1.. They can't prove it but are reporting it!!
LOL.. I haven't bought music since getting Sirius. It like getting a CD a month for $12.95... Also since alot of the bands I like support Trade Friendly trading and there for the most part there concerts are different everyday. Unlike pop bands doing a robot show..
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|Apple sucks and so do their products!!
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|This is nothing more than an overzealous marketing machine getting caught tripping over their own words.
Apple has one of the best marketing departments on the planet, they're business depends on it (as do most others.) But it looks like in their rush to proclaim their excellence they may have to eat a little crow. They're not the first company to have to do so.
Of course that won't stop the fantoys from taking it as the gospel according to Steve and spreading the word.
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|As a Mac user myself (no fantoy ;-) I must agree with you: Their marketing business is quite effective but Steve Jobs alone is the ultimate power trip. Without him I wonder what Apple would do, or better yet what would the Apple preachers do!?
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|Totally agreed. If anyone need marketing, learn it from Apple. I wish MS learn some of the marketing technique from Apple. Ms simply lack of marketing to their product.
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|"the world's most popular online movie store."?
According to whom? I even dug up the press release which this article referenced and could find no source for their contention.
http://www.apple.com/pr/...y/2008/06/19itunes.html
If they really are number 1 it can't be because of their selection since it is so limited I can't imagine anyone spending a lot of time watching movies off of iTunes. 4 films classifed as 'Anime'? 27 'Classics'? There is only so many times someone would want to watch such great films like 'Alvin and Chipmunks' and 'Jackass'. Netflix definitely has them beat when it comes to selection.
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|"According to whom? I even dug up the press release which this article referenced and could find no source for their contention"
Accordingly to apple with that link you posted, End of the first paragraph
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|Your a ding dong:
"Some two-and-a-half months after its first declaration, Apple on Friday once again declared itself the "number one music retailer in the US,' this time also proclaiming Apple's iTunes "the world's most popular online movie store.'"
Thats what he was refering too.
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|That's not a source that simply an unsupported claim. While I wouldn't be surprised if they rent/sell 50K movies a day without any context you can't say anything about how strong their market position really is.
Even if iTunes had 90%+ share of the online movie market(unlikley) I don't think I would be boasting about how impressive 50K is. That's not even 1% of the number of music tracks that they sell in a typical day. Unless they can dramatically improve their selection I wouldn't expect that number to grow much.
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|*They* are the source of their unsupported claim. Hence why people are questioning
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|When I last checked, Apple was #1 in every market they compete in.
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|When I last checked, Apple was #1 in every market they compete in.
*laughing*
They make PCs.
When, exactly, did you last check?
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|He painted a picture on the inside of his blinkers. This guy is just.... unbelievable.
I am starting to think he actually really hates all things apple and is going out of his way to make apple people look really bad.
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|Ugh... you fed the troll!
Bad PC_Tool, bad! ;)
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|Didn't you know, they took over the desktop market years ago.
DUH!
heh
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|Nono they make Macs. They are number 1 at making MACS ;-)
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|No, thats what brings all the entertainment into here. :P
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|Id have to agree with that. :P
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|Apple sells PCs that run OS X. They're called Apple Macintosh PCs.
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|Hmmm... Apple Inc has some explaining to do. I will be quoting your analysis in our upcoming article.
Daniel
http://www.palluxo.com
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|What I took from the data is that Apple was gaining on Wal-Mart and had temporarily overtaken them due to the holiday season, but would slip back to second place.
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|Yeah, but don't single out Apple for that. Every business does it. If they get a bump, they get bragging rights for a while.
That's not something unique to Apple.
Of course, they haven't had much opportunity to do this in the past. ;)
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|I'm just saying that the "article" seems like the author is looking to start a flame war (as many do here).
Apple could be in first place after a while, as a more permanent position, but I think that it will take a few quarters more. Now, when they take over the grocery business from Wal-Mart, I'll be impressed.
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|the author is looking to start a flame war (as many do here).
Heh.
Obviously. :)
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|woot
;-)
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|I'd like to see the Amazon MP3 store gain market share bigtime.
They are in the standard MP3 format, VBR or Constant at 256 kbps so they are high quality, and they have NO DRM of ANY kind.
It's a good start and I hope they knock iTunes down a few notches, in ego and market share. :)
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|Don't count on it, Apple always leads the way...
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|Yeah...because they created digital music.
Oh...wait...that was someone else.
Well, they created the online store!
No...Nope, that was someone else as well...
Hey! The created the first digital music player...nope, someone else again...
So, how *did* they "lead" the way, Oh Great Apple Fanboy?
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|Don't forget:
They created the PC.
No..
They created the GUI?
No..
I know!! They created the phone!
No..
Oh Oh Oh, I get it!
"Lead the way" means drag it to the trash to eject it.
heh
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|Didn't Al Gore do all those things?
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|They invented touchscreen!
oh wait, they didn't...
Well, surely it was widgets!
Wait, no they didn't do that either...
What exactly did they invent all by themselves with no other product available?
The PC vs Mac commercials thats what they invented! and Justin Long's career!
Itunes is great if you have an apple computer, for a standard grey box pc itunes is horrible. Amazon while doesn't have some super impressive display, makes it cheaper, better quality and no drm.
Best quote ever...
"Hey, Steve, just because you broke into Xerox's house before I did and took the TV doesn't mean I can't go in later and take the stereo" - Bill Gates 1989
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|I believe he said "leading the way" not "invent or created"...and they are leading the way "perfecting" what everybody failed to do properly in the first place.
- Online music store: iTunes
- Cellphone: iPhone
- Mp3 player: iPod
- Better OS: Mac OS X
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|*LAUGHS*
Ok, lets play the word game. He also said "always".
So...iTunes has *always* been the best online music store? (seeing as how they *just momentarily* became #1?)
The iPhone has *always* been the best Cellphone? (Arguable as to whether it is *now*, even...)
And the iPod? Best MP3 player? Try digital music player, and there are *far* better.
...and lets not even get started on Mac OSX. it may be pretty now, but was it...always?
I can't believe you're defending that moron...
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|Very true lol.
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|That post is so laughable on so many fronts.
The only thing Jobs & Co. seems to have perfected is marketing. They're a juggernaut in this area. They have to be to sell so many products that are lacking features that similar products from other manufacturers have had for a year or more.
To me, Apple's marketing tactics in recent years are simply another example of "the ends justify the means".
As arrogant and elitist as Jobs is though, I do respect him for achieving the level of success that he has up to now. Apple was quite stagnant until he regained control.
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|Steve Jobs BS!!! Arrogant Pr*ck!
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|lol! agreed!
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|The article doesnt mention a dam thing about Steve Jobs.
But it does look like apple need to do some explaining to do.
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