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Steve Jobs: “We’d love to have a $100 iPod!”

“Apple’s charismatic CEO sat down with NEWSWEEK’s Steven Levy—after introducing the Windows version of iTunes and the upgraded iTunes Music Store last week—to discuss the world of digital music. [...]

Still, $300 to $500 is an obstacle to a lot of people.
No, of course I don’t think it’s too costly. Fifty million homes have DVD players that cost that kind of money. For music lovers, I don’t think it’s a hurdle at all. There are sneakers that cost more than an iPod.
       
Some think you wouldn’t want to sell a $100 iPod because the profit margin would be so low.
What are you talking about? We’d love to have a $100 iPod! We just don’t know how to do it right now. We’re constantly trying to make cheaper iPods. We’re working on the next step.”

QuickTime Video of Apple Music Event Now Available

Fow your viewing pleasure, Apple has now released the QuickTime video of yesterday’s Introduction of iTunes for Windows, as presented by Steve Jobs.

LATimes: Apple Is Expected to Unveil Pact With Pepsi

“The Cupertino, Calif., company, which reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday that beat analysts’ expectations, is expected to announce today a promotion deal that would give Pepsi buyers free songs from Apple’s fledgling online music service.

Sources said the unveiling of the pact with PepsiCo Inc. was timed to coincide with today’s release of a Windows-compatible version of Apple’s iTunes Music Store, which has been available only to Macintosh users.”

Updated: Apple ships 336,000 iPods, still no. 1 MP3 player

MacMinute has posted highlights from today’s Apple Q4 financial conference call with industry analysts and the press. iPod highlights included: Apple made $121 million in profit from the 336,000 shipped iPods. The iPod is still the no. 1 MP3 player on the market. Apple is expanding its worldwide iPod sales with 8,000 resellers before Christmas.

Today Apple posted its 4th quarter results and it’s noted that 336 thousand iPod units were shipped, up 140 percent from the year-ago quarter. Apple posted a net profit of $44 million and revenues for the quarter were $1.715 billion, up 19 percent from the year-ago quarter.

“‘It was a great new product quarter for Apple,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We launched the Power Mac G5, the fastest personal computer in the world, new PowerBooks and new iPods. Plus, we’re delivering Panther, the next major release of Mac OS X, later this month and we’ll have some exciting news regarding our music efforts tomorrow.’”

Apple: Paying attention to the details

“Look here, at the packaging for the iPod. You ain’t about to find this type of artistic approach in any sort of mass-consumer package design. Yes, it is one of the most expensive MP3 players on the market. Yes, it is by all accounts the best and most elegantly designed MP3 player on the market. And, yes, it is selling by the truckload. There are reasons for this.”

Times Online UK: Apple’s man in black takes on the music pirates

“Many observers believe Apple is more focused on launching the Windows version of iTunes in the US than it is on Europe. The company has committed to launching the Windows version before the end of the year. Jobs says: ‘We said (iTunes for Windows) would be out in the US next quarter, before the end of the year. I think we are very much on track.’

One record industry executive says: ‘Everyone wants to see what success they will have on Windows. If they can sell ten million songs on Macs, which have only 5 per cent of the PC market, how much could they sell to 100 per cent of the market?’”

Embedded apps for iPod and future devices

MacRumors has posted information regarding two job offerings for engineers at Apple’s Job site. The first is a position for Jr. Software Engineer - Embedded Apps. “Join the iPod and Special Projects Group to create and enhance the embedded applications you find on the world famous iPod and the upcoming devices from Apple. You will join a small successful team; work in a fast paced environment to write the embedded applications software that allows the user the rich experience they have when using the iPod and future devices.”

The second position is for a “Senior Embedded Software Engineer” with duties to include “the design and implementation of consumer multimedia applications with skills required on the ARM platform.” The iPods use the ARM7TDMI 32-bit RISC core processor.

Jobs hopes iTMS for Europe early 2004

In a MacNN reader report, Steve Jobs was interviewed on the French TV show during the Apple Expo in Paris.

When will you bring the iTMS to Europe? First priority for us is to make it available to Windows users in the USA and this will happen before the end of the year! But, we are really commited to bringing iTMS to Europe as soon as ... yesterday if we could ... but the European music licensing market is very complicated. A song might be distributed by one company in the UK and a different one in France, and then another one in Germany! So we have been trying to sort thru all of that for several months already and .. we hope that early next year we will be able to offer iTMS to European users, both MAC and Windows!”

CNET: More Beatles vs. Apple

“Geoff Baker, spokesman for Apple Corps, confirmed the suit was filed two months ago in London High Court. He referred further questions to a statement put out by Apple Corps, the company the legendary rock ban formed in 1968 to manage its business interests.

‘Specifically, (the) complaint is made over the use by Apple Computer of the word ‘Apple’ and apple logos in conjunction with its new application for downloading pre-recorded music from the Internet,’ said the statement, apparently referring to Apple’s successful iTunes Music Store service for downloading digital songs”

FOXNews: The Beatles Sue Apple Computers Over IPod, ITunes

“The inevitable has happened: The Beatles have sued Steve Jobs over Apple iTunes and the Apple iPod—at least the band’s company, Apple Corps., has sued Apple Computers. [...]

When Apple Computers first came into existence, the Beatles’ lawyers sued—and won—over the use of the corporate name. The Fab Four, it was widely known, already had their own company called Apple Corps. (Ironically, Jobs admitted to naming his company as a tribute to the Beatles.) The result of the suit was a huge cash settlement and a promise that the Apple logo and name would only be used for computers—and never for a music company.”

Apple launches ‘iPod-a-Day Giveaway’

“We are giving away a 10GB iPod every day between August 20 and September 20, 2003. Create a new iTunes Music Store* account during this time, and you will automatically be entered into our daily drawing. Once you create an account, your name stays in the drawing until September 20, so the earlier you sign up, the more chances you have to win.”

Source: MacMinute

BusinessWeek: Steve Jobs: “I’m an Optimist”

BusinessWeek online has posted an interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “Apple’s visionary-in-chief looks at tech’s condition today and says:  “I see a recovery in innovation coming out of this downturn”

Q: Will we see more groundbreakers like the iPod from Apple?

A: The iPod is not a new category. Music is not new. It’s not a speculative market. It’s a very, very large market. It’s been around for thousands of years and will be around as long as humans exist. So it’s not like saying we’re going to go build an information appliance or some technical curio and hope the market exists. We’re taking a giant market and bringing it into the Digital Age. That requires hardware, software, and the ease-of-use talent that Apple has.

BusinessWeek: Where “Think Different” Is Taking Apple

“‘It’s a paradigm shift at the company,’ says Charles Wolf, an analyst at investment firm Needham & Co. and a longtime Apple watcher (who owns shares of Apple stock). ‘They are redefining what kind of company they are.’ Indeed, the release of iPod for Windows last August established the demarcation line in an extraordinary strategic change for Apple, a company that over the past two decades has steadfastly refused to loosen its control over the creation, manufacturing, or distribution of its products.”

Windows iTunes “on track to launch by the end of this year”

At the 2003 Jupiter Plug.IN Conference & Expo, Peter Lowe, Apple’s Director of Marketing for Applications and Services addressed attendees at the keynote address, and mentioned several items in regards to iTunes.

“We fundamentally believe subscriptions are the wrong path...that’s not what consumers are doing offline...they want to buy downloads.
If digital distribution is about one thing, it is about being simple...as simple as a CD player...and it needs to be consistent....take the “but” out of it.
We believe Web is not the best interface to enjoy music…
Apple for Windows is on track to launch by the end of this year...Usage rules for Windows version of iTunes: certainly it is our intention to have the broad music rights…
Out of all our iTunes sales, 46 percent has been sold as albums..the disintegration of the album has not happened, contrary to what people are saying...”

Apple: Profits rise from sales of music and 3G iPods

Apple today posted a net profit of $19 million and revenues for the third quarter were $1.545 billion in its financial results for fiscal 2003.

“‘This was a great new product quarter for Apple, starting with the iTunes Music Store and the new third-generation iPods, and ending with the announcement of the Power Mac G5 and the developer preview of Panther, the fourth major release of Mac OS X,’ said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. ‘Customer response to our new products has been very strong, and this quarter we are focused on delivering Power Mac G5s beginning in August and finishing Panther for release later this year.’”

“What’s Missing From the iPod?”

Wireless Supersite Editor Ross Rubin writes about “the glory as well as some gotchas in Apple’s iPod and music strategy.”

“Will this week’s Macworld CreativePro Conference and Expo herald an update to Apple’s success with the iPod and the Apple Music Store? Along with iTunes, they compose the tune triumvirate that should represent an important new revenue source for the company. The combo also constitutes what for the moment is likely the world’s largest digital music marketplace—outside of mobile phone ringtones—thanks to the contract terms that Apple negotiated with the five major record labels.”

Plug an iSight into iPod and record video?

Jon Fortt writes about Apple’s recently announced Power Mac G5, iSight and upcoming Panther OS X. In the article, Fortt speculates using iSight with iPod for recording video.

“Slap the iSight onto a 15-gigabyte iPod and all of a sudden you’ve got a hard-drive-based camcorder that can hold hours of Quicktime video, plus play music.

Jobs didn’t have Apple build the iSight just to make a Web cam that mounts to the top of a monitor. If monitor mounting were his big stroke of creative genius, he could have simply asked a third-party developer to make monitor mounts. Jobs is thinking bigger than that, and Apple is staking out strategic territory. It’s focusing on audio, video and voice communication, which translates into MP3 players, camcorders and phones. If I were a betting man, I’d wager that an Apple-branded camcorder and an Apple-branded phone aren’t too far off.”

One million iPods, iTunes sells five million songs

Today at the WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) in San Francisco, Steve Jobs took the stage to address the attendees and mentioned that the one millionth iPod would be shipped later today. Also noted, iTunes has sold over five million songs since its debut. Jobs is expected to announce the new Apple G5 Macintosh and show a preview of OS X 10.3 Panther. You can check for live coverage from the WWDC conference at Macminute.com or MacCentral.com.

Update: Apple has posted a press release declaring the iTunes Music Store has sold over five million songs.

“‘The iTunes Music Store is changing the way people buy music,’ said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. ‘Selling five million songs in the first eight weeks has far surpassed our expectations, and clearly illustrates that many customers are hungry for a legal way to acquire their music online.’”

iPod radio ads posted on Apple UK website

Apple UK has posted two iPod radio ads on its website. “The ads, ‘7500 songs… is that a typo?!’ and ‘Jazz, Classical, Opera, Funk, Soul...’, feature the voice of Hollywood actor Jeff Goldblum, star of ‘Jurassic Park’ and Apple’s own television ads. The radio campaign will run until mid-July.”
Source: MacMinute

Apple posts KBase Doc for independent labels

Macworld UK reports that Apple has posted a Knowledge Base document instructing musicians to contact Apple if they want their music to be added to iTunes Music Store. Musicians and independent lables should contact Apple via

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