During Apple’s third quarter conference call with analysts today, company executives discussed a number of iPod and iTunes related topics. Below are highlights from the call. See our previous story for Apple’s third quarter earnings and iPod shipment numbers.
– The iPod accounts for over 75% of the U.S. market for MP3 players.
– The iPod is the top-selling MP3 player in Canada, Australia, the U.K., France, Spain, Italy and Japan, according to the latest data from NPD, GFK and BCN.
– The iTunes Music Store now accounts for 85% of the digital music market, based on data from Nielsen SoundScan.
– The iTunes Music Store now offers over 3 million songs, 9,000 music videos and over 150 TV shows.
– Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the company is “investing heavily in iPod and iTunes engineering and is very enthusiastic about products in the pipeline.”
– Apple now has nearly 40,000 distribution points for the iPod worldwide.
– Apple is getting more aggressive with iPod marketing efforts outside the U.S.
– When asked about mobile phones, Oppenheimer said, “We don’t think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change, and we are not sitting around doing nothing.”
– Apple’s “other music products” had revenue of $457 million, up 90% year over year, because of “continued strong sales from the iTunes Music Store and very solid performance for iPod accessories.”