Apple denies download sales fall
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Apple denies a report which claims US sales from its iTunes Music Store fell 65% in the first half of 2006.
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NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO  - Apple Inc.   Chief Executive Steve Jobs on Tuesday called on the four major  record companies to start selling songs online without copy  protection software to thwart piracy known as digital rights  management (DRM).
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(InfoWorld) - The beta build of Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" that Apple handed out to developers June 11 at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) has leaked to the Internet and is being downloaded by users of PirateBay, the Swedish torrent tracker. Last Monday, CEO Steve Jobs spent most of this 90-minute WWDC keynote address touting the upcoming OS, which is set for release in October. Eight days later, the beta labeled build "9A466" was uploaded to PirateBay. The first upload on Tuesday didn't take -- there was only one "seeder," the term for a computer that has a complete copy of the torrent file -- but the second yesterday is being downloaded and assembled, according to comments left by numerous users. As of late yesterday, only four seeders were available, with 181 "leechers," or computers that have downloaded only part of the complete torrent. By 3 p.m. today EDT, however, the numbers had climbed to 44 seeders and more than 1,500 leechers. The beta was also posted to the private, invitation-only torrent tracker Oink yesterday, according to CrunchGear, a tech blog. But when CrunchGear exposed the leak, Oink pulled the beta. That sent downloaders into a verbal rage during which they vented their collective spleens at the blogger who outed Oink. "Go [expletive deleted] yourself you [expletive deleted] rat," ranted one. Based on the PirateBay listing, the Leopard 9A466 beta weighs in at a bit more than 6GB. But the exact byte count worried a user tagged as "konelli." "It's definitely not my intention to spoil the party, but how do we know that this is the real thing? Last time I checked, the WWDC version was supposed to be 6.94GB (or 7,450,640,384 bytes). This is, well, less. Has anybody finished downloading who could confirm that this is genuine?" Apple was asked if it planned to pursue the person or persons who leaked the build to BitTorrent, or what actions it might take against PirateBay. It did not immediately respond with comment, however. The first question is especially important in light of past history. The last time an under-development version of Mac OS X ended up on BitTorrent, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker brought out its lawyers. In December 2004, Apple sued three men, as well as 25 others identified only as "Does," for releasing a developer preview of Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4, via the BitTorrent file-sharing network. All three were members of the company's own Developer Connection, Apple claimed, and had illegally leaked their copies of Tiger. But after several Apple notables, including co-founder Steve Wozniak, pleaded for leniency in blogs and other online postings, Apple backed off a bit. During a 10-month span from March to December 2005, Apple signed a settlement with the three named defendants: students Vivek Sambhara, David Schwartzstein, and David Steigerwald. Each promised to never again release information about the company or its products, while media accounts reported that Schwartzstein and Steigerwald also distributed repentant statements and paid damages to Apple. "We are pleased that Mr. Steigerwald has taken responsibility for his actions and that we can put this lawsuit behind us," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told the Associated Press in March 2005 after the company settled with David Steigerwald, then a 22-year-old North Carolina college student.
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Apple's price drop may look like a preemptive holiday strike, but is it really the result of struggling sales figures?
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Amazon waited to offer digital music until it could sell unrestricted MP3 files, rather than songs with digital rights management. It may force Apple to compete on price and terms.
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Apple Computer Inc's  iTunes remains the leader in paid digital music downloads, but the number of paying customers for this sector  overall has decreased since April, research firm NPD said Tuesday.
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SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store started selling thousands of songs without copy protection Wednesday, marking the trendsetting company's latest coup and a model for what analysts say will likely become a pattern for online music sales.
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Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs  on Tuesday called on the four major record companies to start  selling songs online without copy protection software known as  digital rights management (DRM).
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We may see the end of protected music downloads, but it won't be Apple's doing, argues Bill Thompson
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NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO  - Apple Inc.   Chief Executive Steve Jobs on Tuesday called on the four major  record companies to start selling songs online without copy  protection software known as digital rights management (DRM).
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NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO  - Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs on Tuesday called on the four major record companies to start selling songs online without copy protection software to thwart piracy known as digital rights management (DRM).
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Apple reported strong earnings for its fourth quarter on Monday, boosted by record Macintosh computer sales and the shipment of 1.12 million iPhones.The company beat analyst estimates with net income of $904 million, or $1.01 per share, compared with $542 million, or $0.62 per share, in net income reported in last year&#39;s fourth quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial estimated a consensus of $760.45 million in net income and earnings of $0.84 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 29.The company reported $6.22 billion in revenue, up from $4.84 billion in the fourth quarter last year. The revenue consensus from analysts polled by Thomson was for $6.07 billion.For fiscal 2007, Apple reported net revenue of $24 billion and net income of $3.5 billion, said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple&#39;s CFO, in a conference call with financial analysts.Looking ahead, the company estimates that revenue will hit $9.2 billion with earnings per share of $1.42 for the first fiscal quarter of 2008, Oppenheimer said.The company shipped 2.16 million Macs during the quarter, a 34 percent growth over the year-ago period, Apple said in a news release.Mac sales increased worldwide, spurred by back-to-school promotions, said Tim Cook, Apple&#39;s COO, on the call. In addition to rapid growth in the U.S. and Europe, Mac unit shipments also increased in Japan, a major market where Apple has traditionally struggled to grow, Cook said.Shipment of Mac notebooks, including MacBook and MacBook Pro, grew 31 percent year-over-year and accounted for 62 percent of all Macs sold, Oppenheimer said.Given the success of this back-to-school period, Mac sales could be flat in the upcoming quarter, Cook warned.Sales of the iPhone are outpacing those of the iPod during the first few months after its 2001 introduction, Cook said. The company shipped 1.39 million iPhones during the year and saw a spike in sales after a $200 price drop of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399 in September.Apple is confident it will sell 10 million iPhones in the next calendar year, Cook said.Apple sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter, a 17 percent year-over-year growth. iPod has sold 120 million units to date, Oppenheimer said. The upcoming holiday shopping season will be a big quarter for iPod sales, Oppenheimer said.Apple had a busy quarter with multiple product announcements.Last month, it unveiled the&#160;iPod Touch, a portable multimedia player with a touchscreen user interface and Wi-Fi capabilities. It also announced availability of the iPhone in Europe, with U.K. network operator O2 (UK) Ltd. slated to start shipping the device in November.The company is excited about entering the Europe market, and plans to enter the Asia-Pacific market in 2008, Cook said.On the software front, Apple announced iWork &#39;08, its office applications suite, in August. Mac OS X Leopard, Apple&#39;s latest operating system, will begin shipping later this week.This story was updated on October 22, 2007
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Are Apple sales in trouble? Two research analysts have reported in recent days that Apple is aggressively cutting back production on iPods and iPhones, while increasing production on Mac computers.
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British music fans will pay less for  downloads from Apple's  online iTunes store after Apple  Chief Executive Steve Jobs reached a deal with the European  Commission.
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Apple has responded to a midnight Wednesday deadline in relation to antitrust concerns over the pricing of songs on its iTunes online music store across different European countries. The European Commission has expressed concerns about Apple setting unfair iTunes pricing prohibiting users in one country from downloading music from a website intended to serve another. A European commission spokesperson said: "They answered yesterday and we are studying [the response] carefully at this point."
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Apple celebrated yesterday when it announced that they have sold now more than 150 million songs via their iTunes Music Store. Despite some reports that overall traffic to online music stores has dropped, Apple&#39;s
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BRUSSELS/BERLIN  - Apple President Steve Jobs  reiterated his commitment to charging the same price for iTunes  downloads across Europe as his lawyers defended the company on  Wednesday against allegations its prices are not uniform.