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Apple sells its 100 millionth iPod
By Allison Linn
Senior writer
MSNBC
Apple Inc.?s announcement Monday that it has sold 100 million of its iPod music players marks more than just a business milestone for the once-struggling computer company.
The remarkable sales figure also is evidence that Apple has, in just a few short years, played a major role in transforming a fringe technology into a mainstream phenomenon ? spawning massive ripple effects in both the music and technology industries.
What?s more, analysts say, Apple?s more recent forays into selling movies and TV shows ? and, soon, its own cell phone ? could be poised to transform those industries as well.
?It?s pretty clear to me, as to most people who have watched it, that the record label business is just the canary in the coal mine,? said Phil Leigh, an analyst with Inside Digital Media who has followed the digital music business for years. ?The Hollywood studios and the TV production companies ? they need to pay attention because their businesses are going to change just as rapidly, and they need to adapt.?
Apple said Monday that it had sold 100 million iPods since the gadget was introduced in November 2001. The company also noted that it had sold more than 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and more than 1.3 million movies through its iTunes music and media store.
If there was any doubt, the numbers offer definitive proof that the iPod has crossed from being a gadget for music lovers and technology geeks to being a mainstream hit with everyone from kids riding the bus to grandparents out for an afternoon walk.
Of course, there were other companies before Apple that offered the ability to listen to music over the Internet, and to play back songs on small digital gadgets. But while most of those systems required a fair amount of technical prowess, experts credit Apple with making the technology easy enough to appeal to a mass audience.
?Apple took a totally different approach than most of the other companies,? said Roger Kay with Endpoint Technologies Associates.
While other companies saw digital music players as primarily for gadget geeks, Kay said Apple decided to ?human engineer this so that people will like the experience. That was very, very key (to) setting the pace for everyone else in the industry.?
The understated device, with its clean look and easy click wheel, was mirrored by an iTunes music service that offered a simple way to buy songs at a relatively low price.
By contrast, companies such as RealNetworks Inc. offered a variety of services, including subscriptions that essentially let people rent songs. Other portable digital devices often required complex steps to program and use, and it was sometimes extremely difficult to transfer songs from computers to the devices.
Apple also had an advantage in that its music service and device were made to work together, whereas other music services and devices were built by different companies that tried to mesh them. The result could be frustrating and rife with glitches.
It didn?t take long for music lovers to see the convenience of not just listening to songs over a digital player, but also buying them via an online service. Experts credit Apple with helping to legitimize online music downloads, which was rife with piracy.
Now, thanks in large part to iPod?s popularity, many think it will just be a matter of time before the tried-and-true method of going to a store and buying a CD becomes a thing of the past.
?It?s high time the record labels realize that the CD is as dead as General Custer,? Leigh said.
The change has been dramatic for the music industry, which is now struggling to understand how to make its business work in a vastly different distribution model. Even now, not every label is allowing all their songs to be sold online.
As downloading television and movies becomes more popular, Leigh expects those industries to have to grapple with the same major changes. That could mean job cuts, changes in product lineups or any number of other moves.
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