George W. Bush and Al Franken both have one . So do the Pope and Bono . iPod are everywhere , redact Apple ’s logo in more places than the silhouette of a once - burn orchard apple tree has ever been before . Yet the Second Coming of the earbud land has to some extent overshadow Apple ’s more revered stalwart product , the very one from which this publication takes it name and upon which Apple built an conglomerate : the Mac .
Over the past five years , Apple has sold more than 67 million iPods — it unload almost 9 million in the one-quarter ending September 30 alone . In that same geological period , the company sell 1.6 million Macs — and that soma represents the best quarter for Mac despatch in company history .
What ’s more , the iPod has even entered the lexicon , in the form of “ podcasting , ” 2005 ’s word of the year .
And the iPod has achieved all of this while pulling off perhaps its most impressive feat — expanding Apple ’s client stem beyond the Mac market and into the vastly larger public of Windows users .
“ The iPod ’s definitely changed the manner I see Apple , ” said Anil Dash , a Windows exploiter and VP of Evangelism forSix Apart(a title that Dash banknote is a nod to the position once held at Apple by Guy Kawasaki ) . To Dash , the iPod has serve transform his view of Apple “ from a company that realise me wander my eye because of all my drumbeater friends , to [ one ] that I grease one’s palms things from regularly . Albeit begrudgingly . ”
Beyond just expanding its customer base , the iPod has helped drive Apple into other businesses — namely iPod accessories and the sales agreement of digital multimedia such as euphony , goggle box shows , and nowmovies . During Apple ’s fourth quarter earnings conference call last week , Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company commands 85 percent of the effectual medicine downloads in the United States . And that ’s a figure that could soon billow globally : Apple ’s iTunes Store now has a front in 21 countries , be markets where 90 percent of the world ’s medicine is de jure sold . The party also announced that it plan on taking its movies sales event business organisation external in 2007 .
The purpose of all that digital depicted object is pretty absolved cut . “ Selling medicine and TV show , and now movies , helps us deal iPods , ” Oppenheimer recite analyst .
But has all this iPod - fueled digital success move the Mac out of the spotlight ? Or to put it even more brusquely : Is Apple even still a data processor company ? No , not exactly , read Robert Semple , an psychoanalyst with Credit - Suisse First Boston who closely follows the company .
“ It is my impression that Apple stopped being a computing machine society a year ago , whenit set up its video iPod , ” said Semple , “ a move which foretold a passage to other form of media outside of just songs , and cement the troupe ’s image as being more than just a two - magic trick pony ( Macs and music ) . However , the success of iPod has bred success in the Mac , essentially rejuvenating Apple ’s namesake product . ” In fact , according to fourth - quarter numbers , the society ’s Mac sales agreement exceeded even the most optimistic expectations , engender more than $ 2.2 billion in revenue , representing 46 percentage of its quarterly revenue .
Although the item-by-item unit shipments were far lower than iPods , all those Macs summate up to great dollars . For this reasonableness , it is n’t hard to retrieve analyst who argue that Apple for certain is a computing machine companionship , as that remains its core business .
One of those analyst is Needham and Co ’s Charles Wolf , who has go after Apple since the 1980s . “ I retrieve that over the next few year you ’re going to see a fairly sharp growth in Mac consignment once Windows apps can go well on the Mac , ” he order .
Although Wolf also notes that its line is change , he says that the Mac ’s revenues stay on to make it the gist patronage for Apple .
“ Now , in a sense , Apple is weary two chapeau , as a computer company — which is traditional — and as a digital amusement company with a subset being iTunes and the iPod , ” he add . “ I would classify it as both a computer company and a digital amusement troupe . Obviously the unit of measurement ship are greater on the iPod , but [ Average Selling Price ] on it are far downcast , and belike to fall more . Going ahead , tax revenue yield by the Mac — which would include software and peripheral — will greatly exceed the iPod . ”
Indeed , even Semple does n’t fence that Apple is no longer a estimator troupe at all — but that it is no longermerelya computer party .
“ Apple will stay to move further towards its ultimate goal of make a digital hub in the living room , but if iTV is any indication , they still want the Mac to reside alfresco of the living room , acting as essentially a off - land site server of digital content , ” Semple said . “ So the way I would view it is Apple is becoming much more than a electronic computer ship’s company but the core part of its scheme still revolves around the Mac as the center of the digital modus vivendi . ”
Yet for all the hoopla over the iPod — the infinite magazine cover stories , the fawning renown playlist confessionals , the name - dropping on TV show and movies — stigmatization and marketing expert observe that the Mac is still the stronger product .
“ No question , it ’s the Mac , ” say branding guruRob Frankel , author ofThe Revenge of Brand X. “ iPods are a very successful innovation , but their potential is limited . If for no other rationality , Macs were invented to help people create ; iPod were invented to help people consume . ”
Josh Rubin , editor of the trend - trailing Web siteCool search , has a similar perspective . The iPod , he says , does n’t have the ability to hammer the same relationship that a Mac does .
“ The Mac has greater mindshare and loyalty from its user than iPod , ” Rubin said . “ Though the portability of the iPod makes it a more personal machine , the biography - change benefits and experience of the Mac foster a more significant bond between person and machine . ”
Yet as Dash — who can weigh four iPods in his household — point out , sometimes you do n’t necessarily require to forge a chemical bond with your machine ; you just want to take heed to euphony . And for that audience , the iPod seems to have found a sweet spot .
“ The truth is , I ’ve been around originative people or digital artist my whole life , just the people that have always been Mac diehards , ” Dash said . “ And the fact that they playact like zealots was completely off - putting to me . I do n’t require a lifestyle change , I just want to utilise estimator !
“ The iPod act as a expectant gateway drug to Apple usage . It does n’t require a wholesale variety of my day-after-day digital wont , and I do n’t have to throw away my experience as a Windows expert — yes , those subsist , ” Dash continue . “ The respectable part is that the iPod can stand on its own merits ; I do n’t have to drink the Steve Jobs Kool Aid to recognise it ’s deserving ingest . ”
[ Mathew Honanis a San Francisco free lance whose work has also appeared in Wired , Salon , and Time . ]
