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Apple's (AAPL) 'The beat goes on' - iPod Touch, iPhone price cut

Posted Sep 5th 2007 1:37PM by Melly Alazraki (RSS feed)
Filed under: Launches, Apple Inc (AAPL), Starbucks (SBUX), iPhone

All info from Engadget's liveblog:

Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO started with some facts about the iTunes: 600 million copies of iTunes distributed. Over 3 billion songs bought on iTunes. Over 95 million shows sold. Of all music released, 32% was in digital only in 2006.

"iTunes is clearly leading the way. We're going to ship a new version of iTunes tonight to support some new products. The biggest new feature: ringtones." Price 99 cents. As speculated, ringtones could be built as desired from own songs with over 500,000 songs participating.

Jobs moved to discuss the iPod. Sold over 110 million to date. There will be an iPod shuffle refresh with a new color RED to help diseases in Africa.

New iPod Nano with games, more storage, and a full metal design. It's even tinier and thinner with a larger 2-inch screen. Enhanced UI, 3 games, and battery life of 24 hours audio, 5 hours video playback. The 4GB will be priced at just $149. The 8GB version will be just $199. The new Nanos will be in our stores by this weekend.

Continue reading Apple's (AAPL) 'The beat goes on' - iPod Touch, iPhone price cut

Apple (AAPL) calling: iPhone ringtones

Posted Aug 31st 2007 9:45AM by Douglas McIntyre (RSS feed)
Filed under: Deals, Industry, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL), iPhone

The New York Post writes that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is going into the ringtone business with several music publishers, but as always Apple added its own unique take on it: Instead of the music being pre-packaged, "in a new twist, iPhone users will have the ability to choose any part of the song they want as their ringtone."

Last year, global sales of ringtones hit hit $3.5 billion according to London's ARC Group.

The Apple product will only work on the iPhone, and it will be some time before that is any meaningful portion of the one billion handsets sold each year. So Apple may be doing its competition a favor.

If Jobs & Co. have determined that consumers want to pick the part of the songs that they use on their handsets instead of segments of songs picked by the handset companies, it may open a completely new avenue for boosting revenue. The music labels are clearly not going to have an exclusive arrangement with Apple.

No one should be surprised if the new Nokia (NYSE: NOK) music download store begins to offer music under the new model. Large cellular providers like Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and Verizon Wireless are likely to adopt it as well.

But, it was Apple's idea. For what that is worth.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Skype jumps on the music download bandwagon

Posted Apr 25th 2006 2:47PM by Sarah Gilbert (RSS feed)
Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Competitive strategy

Skype, long the darling of VOIP newbies like me, is nothing if not a bandwagon-jumper. The company, acquired by eBay last September, has never stayed true to its phone calling roots, dabbling in everything from instant messaging to voicemail to videocasting. And we know it: everybody's doing ring tones.

The latest bandwagon, straight from the playbooks of the rest of the phone calling world: music downloads. Today Skype signed agreements with a number of the music biggies, including Warner / Chappell Music, EMI Music Publishing, and Sony / ATV Music Publishing. These agreements will allow Skype to distribute many of its ringtones "lawfully" (was it unlawful before, I wonder?) from artists like Madonna, Depeche Mode, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

So I've got to know: how long before Skype launches a campaign where they play some hip-shaking song from the most commercially over-exposed group on television, the Black-eyed Peas? I predict it won't be long.

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Last updated: November 10, 2009: 06:36 AM

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