Apple's iPod reaches 100 million milestone

By Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 10 April 2007 04:12

Your IT - Home IT

Apple has sold 100 million iPods in five and a half years, which it claims makes the device "the fastest selling music player in history."

"At this historic milestone, we want to thank music lovers everywhere for making iPod such an incredible success," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "iPod has helped millions of people around the world rekindle their passion for music, and we’re thrilled to be a part of that."

The original iPod, introduced in November 2001, was what we now think of as a full-size model even though its hard drive only stored 5G.

Today, the slimline iPod nano offers as much as 8G using solid-state flash memory instead of a hard disk (ironically, flash storage was the norm for pre-iPod MP3 players), while the full-size iPod stores up to 80G and can play video as well as audio.

While Apple trumpets the success of the iTunes Store - it has sold over 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies - these numbers seem less impressive on an per-iPod basis: just 25 songs per iPod, and that probably includes the free 'singles of the week.' On the other hand, many iPod owners are on their second or third device, so the per-customer number would be higher.

The iPod has spawned an ecosystem of accessory manufacturers offering items such as cases and speaker systems, although Apple's licensing terms for the dock connector have caused some friction in the past. Not all products have been equally successful - Motorola's ROKR E1 'iTunes phone' sported an iPod-style interface for playing music synced from iTunes on a PC or Mac. Despite being eagerly awaited, the ROKR's 2005 debut was not a huge success. Apple's own iPhone - a combination mobile phone, iPod and internet access device - is due to go on sale midyear.

In the US, more than 70 percent of new cars feature iPod connectivity, and Apple has around three-quarters of the market for portable digital music players. Competing devices such as Microsoft's Zune have so far failed to dent the iPod's success.