“Happy Anniversary iPod! Hard as it is to believe, tomorrow marks five years since those ubiquitous white earplugs started appearing in hipster’s ears,” Peter Lauria reports for The New York Post.
“Apple’s iTunes accounts for more than 80 percent of online music sales, and the iPod commands a similar share of the device market,” Lauria reports.
“More staggering than the impact the iPod has had on the music industry is the impact the device has had an Apple’s bottom line,” Lauria reports. “Apple’s stock price has mushroomed about 800 percent, from $9 per share to $79, on a post-split basis, since iPod’s were introduced. For this fiscal year, Apple has rung up $7.7 billion on the sale of 39.4 million iPods, which come in four varieties.”
“UBS analyst Ben Reitzes estimates Apple will sell 111 million iPods and generate $18.7 billion in sales over the next two years alone,” Lauria reports. “And that’s not including revenue brought in from the iTunes Music Store and pumped-up sales of Mac computers.”
Full article, with contrasting images of the first-generation iPod (2001) vs. the new 2G iPod shuffle (2006) here.
Related article:
Apple iPod turns 5: How did a little gadget have such a big impact? – October 20, 2006
It’s been 5 great years (well, three for me – my personal iPod just turned 3 last month).
And on the 25th, happy 5th birthday to Windows XP. Five years and Apple is on their 5th version of the iPod. 5 years and Microsoft is on the same version of Windows. Just an interesting tid-bit.
Quevar:
Interesting yes. But, you are comparing Apples to turds.
Hey, along
with the right AV software package, XP has evolved over those 5 years from a malware infested piece of crap into an almost adequate operating system.
I wouldn’t call it a turd, a zune maybe, but not a turd.
Except that is evolved because it was forced to. In typical M$ fashion, innovation took a back seat to profit once their competition was out of the picture.
If that’s not turdish…
sounds like soup to me…
OS-wise, in October of 2001 Apple was fresh off the release of 10.1. Think about how far the OS has come since then. Windoze XP? Two service packs focused on closing some of the gaping holes.
Happy Birthday, iPod!
Apple was born the same year I was. The iPod was born on my birthday. Coincidence?
@Coolfactor…
Coincidence?… not if your dad is SPJ.
Anyone hear about the problems with the first gen. iPod shuffle?
Error 1418.
Thousands of shuffles are dying with blinking amber/green lights.
How do they celebrate? No new announcements, no nothing …
5 years of iPod goodness, and even though I entered the game late (2 years ago) I have to say I’ll never go back!
Keep the Zen
Keep the Zune
Keep it all
I’ll take the iPod over all!