Apple today announced that more than two billion songs, 50 million television episodes and over 1.3 million feature-length films have been purchased and downloaded from the iTunes(R) Store (http://www.itunes.com), making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.
“iTunes has crossed another major milestone by selling over two billion songs — with over a billion of them sold in the last year alone — making it by far the world’s most popular music store,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “And by selling 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies to date, iTunes is already the largest online video store in the world as well.”
The iTunes Store now features the world’s largest catalog by far with over four million songs, 250 feature films, 350 television shows and over 100,000 podcasts. Beginning today, iTunes has added more than 100 movies from Paramount Pictures priced at just $9.99 including “School of Rock,” “The Italian Job,” “Mean Girls,” “Zoolander,” “Coach Carter,” “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life,” “Chinatown” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
The world’s most popular music jukebox, iTunes 7 delivers stunning features such as the new album and Cover Flow views of music, TV shows and movies, enabling users to quickly find titles in their library as well as casually browse through and re-discover titles they already own. Videos purchased from the iTunes Store are downloaded in near-DVD quality at a resolution of 640 by up to 480, depending on the content’s aspect ratio. And now with Apple TV, you can wirelessly play all your favorite iTunes content from your Mac or PC, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts on your widescreen TV.
With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and groundbreaking personal use rights, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.
iTunes 7 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from http://www.itunes.com. Purchase and download of content from the iTunes Store for Mac or Windows requires a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase. Television shows and feature films are available in the US only, and video availability varies by country. Games are available for download in the 22 countries in which iTunes operates and play on the fifth generation iPod. New release feature films are US$14.99 each and other feature-length films are $9.99 each, television shows are $1.99 per episode, music videos and short films are $1.99 each and games are $4.99 each.
More info about Apple’s iTunes: http://www.apple.com/itunes/
a pity we can’t get the movies in the UK STILL. If we did i would be very interested in the Apple TV
MW Day as in i can’t wait for the day we can get movies on itunes
AAPL releases its earnings next Tuesday (after market close, I believe). The stock run-up today is only the beginning of the NEXT 30 YEARS!
No doubt Rob Enderle will pen another article that says, “See! I was right about iTunes song sales!”
To which everyone just quietly shakes their heads, as one might at the town idiot who just pissed all over his hands.
Really, what’s all the fuss?
And, where the hell is Leopard, iLife 07, iWork 07, faster better Macs?
Is Apple, Inc. getting out of the computer business in favor of music players and TV transmitters?
What a shame.
1032 days to do the first billion.
320 days to do the second billion.
Yep, seems like a failure to me.
Yeah UK Paul, I want them here too mate.
Also, will everyone fcuking relax about Apple getting out of the computer business.
MDN word: Not, as in not going to happen.
Do you think Apple would have so many people at MacWorld today if all they made was iPods and iPhones. Don’t get me wrong both are the best in class.
The Mac is what made people love Apple for thirty years and would do so for thirty more.
Some people hate PC’s so much that being able to use something better makes them feel really good.
I’m hoping we get Mac and Software updates soon. I think we will but I also think not telling the faithful when to expect them was a mistake.
@ Who Cares?
i definitely care about “apple TV” and the iPhone, but i too was very surprised that the presentation had no mention at all of the new iLife / iWork suites, or os 10.5. Clearly, the iPhone is a big deal, and worthy of much attention, but I was surprised that there was no mention of integration b/w the iPhone / Leopard / iChat … perhaps there will be a ‘special event’ in the next few months … ?
Who Cares,
You can only pack so much into one keynote address. The details on Leopard, iWork, and iLife will be coming later this week I bet.
There are a lot of people who appear to think that Stevie should have turned today’s keynote into something similar to a marathon like Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
This is, with the best will in the world, bullshit and here’s why…
1) After the intro of the iPhone, Steve could have gone on to announce that he could predict the winner of the next five SuperBowls, World Series and all of the Nobel Prizes until 2025 and the only thing that would appear in tomorrow’s papers would be the iPhone.
Many years ago, IIRC, HP announced over 100 products at a single press conference: the result was that no one product received due attention and I would argue that nobody really knew what the company had done.
2) TV and iPhone will garner all of the press attention tomorrow: iPhone genuinely represents the first practical (i.e. high quality) converged mobile device and will rightly be seen as a major step forward in the marketplace (you only have to look at Palm and RIM’s share price at the end of today to see how much damage Apple has inflicted even before getting FCC approval).
It now makes more sense to delay any further discussion about Leopard to a strategically sensible date: for example, if I were Schiller, I would advise that it makes more sense to let Microsoft have its moment in the sun regarding Vista (the OEM release of which will be at the end of this month) and then deliver a special event at which the true gulf between the two systems can be displayed.
3) iPhone will put OS X into more customers’ hands in the first 18 months of release than the Macintosh has delivered since the autumn of 2001. In that respect, it is a profitable ‘demonstrator” of Apple’s software engineering prowess and will bring over even more switchers than the iPod has managed.
When Apple releases a second-generation iPhone with 16GB of storage and, one assumes, an active developer programme (presumably based on Java) it is wholly likely that the iPhone will become the ‘gold standard’ of the mobile device. Apple’s future became a whole lot clearer today and I for one think that it looks pretty good.
Fanatic Realist,
right ye are!
The numerous wingers and moaners on this site really get on one’s nerves.
They’ll be a special event for the Leopard release, and the ‘mini’ update, and new monitors, etc., etc. will all be released in the next few weeks.
Sticking everything together in a 4 hour (at least) Keynote would have been absurd.
But if you think computers are taking a back seat, then just wait till next week and you’ll see how many they sold in the December quarter – my guess is about 2 million.
Gavron,
In no way do I believe that Apple’s computer business is taking a back seat. On the contrary, my argument is that iPhone will bring Apple closer to the so-called “professional executive” marketplace and put OS X into the hands of tens of millions of prosumers who would never normally touch an Apple product in several lifetimes.
I’ll lay dollars to doughnuts that iPhone v2.0 will develop the power to be a digital hub remote and potentially a universal remote when combined with an IR extender product.
Combine TV, Airport Extreme and iPhone and I can see a controller for the Digital Home that – in conjunction with a system like Insteon – could make Apple the natural choice of user-choosers so long as the pricing and market infrastructure are right for the local marketplace.
I don’t see iPhone as an either/or product for Apple – instead, it is Apple’s first “respectable” sub-client product (I loved the Newton, but the technology was way ahead of its time and even further ahead of the hardware) that has the potential to be part of an integrated “OS X” whole. Anyone who doesn’t see that possibility seriously needs to have their Imagination Quotient looked at as a matter of urgency or they’ll find themselves in a Fry’s, Circuit City or PC World looking at some ‘beige’ WinDell box and thinking how nice it looks.
Fanatic Realist – thanks for posting such intelligent and positive comments!
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MDNMW: I liked them a ‘lot’