Archive for May, 2010

iPod Six Generations

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Six generations of iPod

Apple launched its first portable media player called iPod on October 23, 2001.  Who could forget the excitement and happiness when Apple came up with the slogan “1,000 songs in your pocket” when it introduced the first generation iPod in 2001.  This wonderful gadget was designed and exclusively marketed by Apple.  The first iPod had a black and white LCD screen comprising of a 5GB hard drive.  This could store up to 1,000 songs encoded using the MP3 technology.  This was given a huge welcome by the young generation who had access to some of the best music.  The iPod was priced at US$399, but no one was complaining.  And why should they with all these wonderful features?

The outstanding features which set the Apple iPod apart from the others was the 1.8 inch hard drive.  This device was extremely easy to use using a mechanical scroll wheel, a beautiful button located at the center, and 4 auxiliary buttons around the wheel.  This iPod could run on the battery for ten hours.

Apple came up with a product line up few could match.  It included the video supported iPod Nano, the compact iPod shuffle, the iPod touch with the touch screen and the iPod classic with the hard drive.  One of the features which provided immense delight to the customers was that the iPod classic models could store media on its internal hard drive.  The capability of iPod was no less than a digital music player as it could play the role of a external data storage device.  The storage capacities of Apple iPod varied vastly.  The iPod Classic had a storage capacity of 160 GB, while it was 2 GB for iPod shuffle.  Apple came up with iTunes software that could be used to transfer music from the computers to other devices using certain versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems and Apple Macintosh.  The iTunes software was a great boon as it helped to transfer calendars, web bookmarks, email settings, games, videos, contact information and photos from the computer to the iPod models supporting these specific features.

Definitely, the Apple iPod has come a long way since its launch in 2001.  This wonderful device has grown in to a vast family of video and digital music players.  The versions which followed the first generation original iPod have been referred to as second generation and third generation.  They are also denoted as 2G and 3G.  And today the Apple iPod is a huge family with six generations.   So going for an Apple iPod with so many diverse and unique features and above all with so many models is a great decision and investment to cherish.

iPod and iPhone sales in 2010

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Apple recently reported that sales of iPods stood at 10.89 million in the second quarter of 2010 in comparison with 11.01 million iPods sold during the same period last year.  Compared to the previous quarter sales too, there is a fall of 48 percent.

In the second quarter 2010, 8.75 million iPhones were sold – an increase of 131 percent in comparison to same period sales last year, and an increase of an extra 0.05 million pieces sold as compared to the first quarter.  For the second quarter, Apple has posted $13.5 billion as revenue and $3.07 billion as net quarterly profit in comparison with $9.08 billion revenue and $1.62 billion net quarterly profit earned for the same period in year 2009.

In the iPod accessories category, sales in the international market contributed 58% of the total revenue for the second quarter.  In comparison with the same quarter last year, sales were up 27% compared to same period last year for other related products and services in music.  In comparison with Q1 2010 sales for the same products which included sales from the iTunes Stores, Apple revenues, iPod services and iPod accessory sales by third-parties the increase was 14% in Q2 2010.

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs declared that the launch of their innovative new iPad has taken the market by storm and that they plan on launching many more extraordinary products later this year.  Apple’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer foresees an increase in both revenue and per share diluted earnings in the third fiscal quarter 2010.

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