iPod and iTunes news

Apple will be selling 7.1 million iPods this current quarter and probably more after news of a special event on September 7th. Media outlets were sent emails with the subject, "1,000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again."

With the 7.1 million estimate, no wonder Rio curled up and died. This is touted to be a blow to Apple's competitors. Non-ipod digital music players may have all the bells and whistles but they simply can't get what iPod has.

Apple's music empire may be under threat from rival online music stores as well as from the music industry itself. There are talks that the subcription type of service will kill off iTMS but Walt Mossberg doesn't think so. He still prefers to own his music rather than rent it. Steve Jobs is most likely going to be in a showdown with 2 of the 4 record labels that is currently being offered in iTMS. These two companies want to change the $0.99 pricing scheme to suit their greed. The president of Napster also said that Jobs has lured people into a hardware trap.

But no matter how much iTunes Music Store's rivals and music execs huff and puff, Apple's success comes from the seamless integration of iPod, iTunes, and iTMS. 80 per cent of music bought online comes from iTMS, this makes the AAC format as the de facto standard. Of course, this doesn't stop stupid people from excluding the millions of iPod owners from listening to audiobooks.

Update: August 31, 2005
One gal thinks the reason why downloading songs from P2P is rampant is that it's not because it's free but because it's there. Read more of Annalee Newitz's article on the controversy that is P2P and how some people would like to see it closed down while some has decided to embrace it and make some money out of it.