Filed under: iPod Family, iTS, iTunes
iTunes website hit by Christmas rush
AppleInsider reports that not only did iTunes get swamped yesterday (as expected), but visits to Apple.com/iTunes, presumably to download software, were up by four hundred percent over last year's Christmas rush. Think about that. Apparently a gadzillion people got new iPods this year, and a good number of them clicked over to Apple.
The article goes on to say that visits to the Apple iTunes webpage outnumbered visits to Zune.net by about thirty-to-one. Given that iPods presumably outsold Zunes by a far heftier margin, I'm guessing that the Zune.net visits had something to do with technical support by confused new owners, but I have no evidence whatsoever to back up that guess.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
someone said 8:34PM on 12-27-2006
Keep in mind that to connect that bright shiny new iPod, you need iTunes. Sure, a lot of people already have it, but I'd say that most people getting an iPod as a gift don't, and with the new packaging, you have to go to the website to download it.
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beken said 7:00PM on 12-27-2006
Agreed. My daughter received an iPod for Christmas. A bunch of her friends also received iPods. In fact, the 2GB iPod nanos were sold out long before Christmas in my area.
One other thing I noted, high speed internet access is not universal yet. Those of us peons who are stuck with good ole fashion dial-up access at home had our phone lines tied up for 2 hours to download iTunes for MAC. Good thing it was only 25MB. The Windows version is 35MB.
It's a good time to own Apple shares.
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Appleswitch said 7:18PM on 12-27-2006
"I'm guessing that the Zune.net visits had something to do with technical support by confused new owners"
iTunes is going to get fewer hits due to the large number of new iPod owners already installed and using iTunes 7, not need to grab new software. Unlike new Zume users, who are forced to use the unpopular default Zume software. (WMP doesen't even work!!)
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Jim said 7:58PM on 12-27-2006
And to think that just a few weeks back there were reports that iTunes sales were down. I bet the stock took a short tumble when this news came out......then somehow rebounded right back --- just like today. Market makers want your shares so don't sell. I bet it'll be in the 90s after Jan. 9.
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Splashman said 9:35PM on 12-27-2006
"...but I have no evidence whatsoever to back up that guess."
No evidence except all the initial reviews, you mean.
Ah, it's a good time to be an Apple fan. Give it another five years or so, and I might even forget the dark, dark days of the mid/late 90's.
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Hawk said 1:52AM on 12-28-2006
too bad I only got 1,2,3,4,6 out of 10 tracks of a CD I bought.
Lame.
They still haven't fixed it.
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Joel Skotak said 9:05PM on 12-27-2006
Yeah, WMP is pretty annoying compared to using itunes. I'm not suprised at all that the well-designed players and "toys" are outselling the competition.
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Jeff said 11:03PM on 12-27-2006
Isn't iTunes on the disc in the iPod box?
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Billy said 9:29PM on 12-27-2006
It's up 400% because iPods don't come with the CD to install, instead you need to go to apple's website and dled it. So there's a reason for the 400% increase. It's funny too cause one of the system requirements for an ipod say internet access. And do you think that the average Mac or Windows consumer updates thier iTunes software frequently? I doubt it.
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Joel Ivory Johnson said 11:53PM on 12-27-2006
I have no doubt that the iPod outsold the Zune be many units per Zune sold but the above some how doesn't seem like a sufficient metric to show the sales proportion. The Zune units do not require a visit to a web site to acquire the software; it ships with the unit. As noted in the article, only access to the website and not the store was counted.
On that note I saw a rather interesting interaction with a customer that had received an 80 gig iPod for Xmas. She had come to best buys to complain that she did not receive software with her unit, and she has not an internet connection with which to download it. The sales associate was able to download the software in the store and burn it to a CD for her. But I wonder how usable the software will be withoug access to the CDDB database. On the other hand, if she can live without an Internet connection perhaps she can be happy manually entering in all of that information.
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Joel Ivory Johnson said 11:54PM on 12-27-2006
Hey jeff, check out the following
http://playlistmag.com/reviews/2006/09/5gipodlate2006/index.php
"Interestingly, unlike all previous iPods, the new 5G, nano, and shuffle iPods no longer include iTunes or the latest iPod software in the box. Instead, Apple has a new iPod/iTunes “start” page on the Web that provides links for downloading the latest version of iTunes—which also now includes all iPod updaters as part of the application itself; no separate downloads are required. "
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Leonard Nimrod said 12:33AM on 12-28-2006
For those that don't have an internet connection, I'm sure that Apple's customer service will send those customers a copy of the latest iTunes/iPod updater software for free.
In fact, I may just call them tomorrow to see how willing they are about sending me the software.
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Chris Harrison said 12:46AM on 12-28-2006
Am I the only one who noticed that content on the store didn't update from last week? The Free Download of the Week is the same as last week... I guess Steve gave all of the iTS worker elves the week off or something.
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jen said 1:13AM on 12-28-2006
I'm not knocking stupid idiots who don't read manuals, one of them sold me a brand new silver ipod nano 2gb out of the package for 20 minutes for $75 this week! wooo! My hubby is a happy boy.
The bought it,(from what I can deduce) gave it to hubby who plugged it in and the stupid windoze users they were drug on music (mp3s and wmvs) from the desktop and when it didn't work, and since there was no software in the box, he (a windoze tech student) declared it crap and he didn't want it. His wife posted it for sale (since she lost the receipt) and after 4 days she went from $150 to $75 when I took the bait. Muahahah.
Not a damned thing wrong with it.
You should have seen her face when I told her she just needed to downlaod itunes and that page one of the manual (I'm guessing they never looked at since it was hard to get out of the little "lucite coffin") tells you that. She obviously wasn't too happy to lose $125 for being married to a moron who is supposed to be a techie and can't even rtfm, but she was nice about it and let us have it anwyay.
So I'm ok with dumbass windoze users with week. Next week though all bets are off.
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John Anthony Evans said 9:43AM on 12-28-2006
So much for one of the resolutions TUAW posted here, i.e. not bashing the Zune.
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/12/26/tuaw-resolutions/
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Joseph Crawford said 11:00AM on 12-28-2006
I would have liked to get my step daughter an iPod for xmas however everyone was sold out of shuffles and nano's. I wouldnt buy her a 30G because it wouldnt last that long and i did not have time to order online so i just bought a junk one for now and will get her an iPod later. Checking the store shelves iPods were sold out, only about 3 Zunes were sold between the 2 stores i checked with.
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Jeff Haley said 12:57PM on 12-28-2006
I bought a bunch of games from the iTunes store on Christmas Day, and I had a lot of trouble connecting.
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