Jobs offers update on iMac G5, Apple Retail, iTunes success

A very charismatic and aggressive Steve Jobs took the stage at the California Theatre in San Jose, CA on Tuesday. Aside from introducing new versions of the Apple iPod and iTunes software, he offered members of the media an update on the iMac G5, the company's retail strategy, and debunked rumors of a decelerating online music industry.

iMac

"The iMac G5 has received the best reviews of any product we've ever had," said Jobs, who kicked off the event by citing captions from favorable reviews in Time Magazine, PC Magazine, The Detroit Free Press, and The Wall Street Journal. "We're thrilled with these reviews and we think this is going to be a very good Christmas for the iMac G5."

Apple Retail

Apple is now operating 93 stores throughout the US and Japan, which combined to attract over 24 million visitors and generate 1.2 billion in revenue during the company's last fiscal year, Jobs said. He further confirmed that Apple will launch its first store in Europe, in London on Nov. 20th. "This is going to be a fantastic store," he said.

Mini Stores

"The mini store came from an observation actually that we had when the Mini Cooper came out... You know that really cool car," Jobs explained. "We observed that this car wasn't amazing because it was a smaller version of a bigger car. It was amazing because it had been designed as a small car right from the start. [...] We thought could a retail store be like this?"

iTunes

The iTunes Music Store has consistently held a 70% market share week to week. "Everybody has to report their results to SoundScan. 70% market share week in and week out," Jobs said. "Now some people... I've read some articles actually that have said the online music industry is slowing down, and we don't know where that is coming from. We don't normally share our data. We're pretty secretive about it. But I want to share some data with you today. So you can see what we see."

In May Apple sold 10,830,573 tracks, in June 12,331,133, in July 15,103,099, in August 15,665,890 and in September 16,229,956. And although the month of October has yet to come to a close, Jobs said the company has projected sales of 17,776,830, representing an overall 64% growth rate.

Jobs also announce that in November Apple will bring the iTunes Music Store to Canada, but did not specify a precise date.

To date Apple has distributed 85 Million copies of its iTunes software.

iPod

The iPod has become a cultural phenomenon and enjoys a 65% market share of MP3 players, Jobs said. "All the flash players that people get as gifts and never use are in that number." Excluding flashed based players and focusing on those equipped with hard drives, Jobs said the iPod holds a whopping 92% market share.

"Some of our competitors say that we're not offering people a choice. We're offering a choice, they just don't like the choice customers are making."

iPod Socks

Joking that some third parties may make more money on iPod carrying cases than Apple makes on sales of the iPod, Jobs said that the company's industrial design team decided to take a stab at a similar product. "Our design team came up with socks," Jobs said. The iPod Socks will be available in a pack of 6 colors for $29 in mid-November from the Apple Store. They'll keep your iPod warm on cold days, he said.

New iPods

Apple's new iPod Photo will automatically downloads album art and displays it on the color screen when playing music. While watching a photo slideshow on the TV, the iPod screen also displays the next and previous photos.

Jobs said that U2's new single, Vertigo, has done better on the iTunes Music Store than any previous pre-release track. He also announced the U2 collection— the first digital box set in the world— which will contain U2s entire catalog of 400 songs, plus over 25 rare and unreleased tracks. The collection, valued at $400, will be available exclusively through iTunes for $149 in November. Included with the special edition U2 iPod is a collectable U2 poster, and a $50 coupon towards the the complete U2 box set.