STROLL the corridors and the atriums on Apple Computer's corporate campus these days and you will notice that something is missing. Gone are the posters and graphics accenting the company's sleek personal computers. In their place, in the main lobby, is a striking, three-story-high billboard celebrating Steven P. Jobs's brand-new billion-dollar consumer electronics business - the iPod digital MP3 music player
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As a result, Apple is acting less like a computer company and more like brand-brandishing, multinational companies such as Nike and Virgin.
Quick Summary
- Apple now has 78 retail stores (and one in Ginza, Tokyo)
- Jobs did not back Newton nor General Magic
- Jobs cancelled all consulting contracts at Apple in '97 (yes!)
- "The success of the iPod doesn't seem to have significantly changed Apple's market share,"
- only top execs at Apple are allowed to speak with the media
- Apple claims 70% market share for legal music downloads
- Apple claims 45% of MP3 market
- only 4% of the personal computer market
- 1Q04; 807,000 iPods sold; 750,000 Macs sold
- non-Mac revenue at 39%; total revenue $1.91B
- Tony Fadell ex-Real gathered 35 people to build the first iPod
- original iPod used licensed software from Pixo (former Apple engineer)
