Today in Apple history: iTunes sales hit astonishing new heights
source link: https://www.cultofmac.com/511857/apple-history-itunes-windows-downloads/
Go to the source link to view the article. You can view the picture content, updated content and better typesetting reading experience. If the link is broken, please click the button below to view the snapshot at that time.
Today in Apple history: iTunes sales hit astonishing new heights
iTunes coming to Windows proved a smart move for Apple.
Photo: Apple
November 6, 2003: After porting iTunes to Windows, Apple sets a new record for digital music sales: a massive 1.5 million downloads in one week.
Bringing iTunes to PC users opens up a new, lucrative market for Apple. The record-breaking sales clock in at five times more than the 300,000 downloads Napster (remember it?) achieved in its debut week. And 1.5 million is double the 600,000 iTunes downloads per week Apple reported selling to Mac users prior to the Windows release.
The battle to bring iTunes to Windows
The iTunes Music Store arrived on Windows a full six months after launching on Mac. One reason for the delay? Apple CEO Steve Jobs was reluctant to end the exclusivity of iTunes.
He told his lieutenants at the time — Phil Schiller, Jon Rubinstein, Jeff Robbin and Tony Fadell — that both iTunes and the iPod helped drive Mac sales. The other execs countered this argument by pointing out that declining Mac sales could never outweigh the gain from increased iPod sales. They eventually convinced Jobs.
As a result of this clash of ideas, the first week of iTunes on Windows likely proved a bit tense for Apple’s top brass. In the end, however, it marked a major milestone in the continued success of iTunes.
Later on, Jobs quipped that giving Windows users access to such a beautiful Mac app was a bit like “giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.”
Major growth for iTunes
In 2003, Apple’s music service was growing at an astonishing rate. By August 2004, the iTunes Music Store catalog reached 1 million songs in the United States, a first for an online music service. And it racked up more than 100 million song downloads.
Do you remember the first song you ever downloaded on iTunes? Let us know in the comments below.
Recommend
-
3
The Astonishing Prescience of Nam June Paik zwischenzugs Uncategorized...
-
8
2501 members Technology Technology on Digg: the best articles, videos, tweets, and original content that the web is talking about right now.
-
9
THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR: BetterTouchTool Customize your Input Devices ...
-
6
Today in Apple history: iTunes puts the hurt on DVDsiTunes getting day-and-date releases for new movies was a big deal.
-
3
Today in Apple history: iTunes tops 50 million songs downloaded That's worth a qui...
-
2
Today in Apple history: iPad sales overtake Macs
-
4
Today in Apple history: Second-gen Apple TV hits 1 million sales
-
3
Bud Light sales have plunged an astonishin...
-
4
iTunes Music Store Turns 20 Today: 'Just 99 Cents Per Song' MacRumors macrumors bot...
-
1
Today in Apple history: iTunes Music Store opens its doors
About Joyk
Aggregate valuable and interesting links.
Joyk means Joy of geeK