wal-mart posts

Filed under: Apple Corporate, iTS, iTunes

Incredible: Apple responsible for 25% of US music sales

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Aug 19th, 2009

The NPD Group has released amazing numbers this week: Apple is generating one quarter of all US music sales. Equally impressive, but less surprising, is that Apple is also responsible for 69% of all online music sales.

Wal-Mart is #2 for US music sales at 14% (that's a combination of both their online and CD sales) and Best Buy is third. Speaking of CDs, the aging format is still the overall top seller in the US and Wal-Mart is the top CD distributor. However, NPD expects that Apple's sales will equal that of CDs by 2010.

I know it's impossible to say what I'm about to without sounding like a grumpy old man, but here it comes anyway. For me, the tremendous thing isn't that Apple has commandeered the market so handily, it is the rate at which the distribution model has evolved. I'm only 38 years old, but as a kid I had a box of records. By the time I was in junior high school I was buying cassettes and in college I bought CDs.

Today, I can't remember the exact last time I bought music in a format I could physically hold in my hands. I'm glad the big wigs in the music industry are starting to get it. Now if only the TV execs would follow suit.

Tags: best buy, BestBuy, itms, itunes, itunes music store, ItunesMusicStore, music sales, MusicSales, online music, OnlineMusic, wal-mart

Filed under: iPhone

Walmart will sell iPhones starting Dec. 28

by Robert Palmer (RSS feed) on Nov 19th, 2008

Walmart will be taking a pass for most of the holiday shopping season with one particular item: the iPhone. It will begin selling the handset December 28, according to Jamie Townsend, of research firm JRPG.

Boy Genius Report also notes that the phone will be sold in some Sam's Club stores as well. The blog broke the news about Walmart's talks with Apple, but originally said the smartphone would hit shelves last Saturday.

Walmart seems to be capitalizing on post-holiday shopping fervor, with BGR's Zach Epstein speculating, "Won't people be happy when they find out Apple's handsets popped up at discount prices three short days after Christmas?" It depends on how meager Christmas is, I suppose.

The handsets will apparently be activated in-store. No pricing details were released.

Tags: barrons, bgr, epstein, iphone, jrpg, townsend, wal-mart, walmart

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail, Odds and ends, Steve Jobs, Apple

Apple Store Sydney storefront leaked

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Oct 11th, 2007

The Sydney Morning Herald has been doing a little poking around the city council blueprints office, and they've come back with an artists' representation of what the new Apple Store will look like there-- a huge glass cube, basically, embedded in the building. A few people who sent it to us (thanks!) said there was supposed to be a huge Apple hanging in the window, but I don't see it. I believe it'll be there, though-- the New York store has a similar design, and the SMH article does mention that big white Apple logo.

It also mentions that Apple is going to stick a huge crane in the street to set up all that glass, and that the store will have three full levels, with the top level going to the Genius Bar. Also nice to see that Apple is tight-lipped about mentioning the store to the newspaper, making them (I'm pretty sure) the only company ever to keep the lid shut on an upcoming retail location. I'm sure the folks from Wal-mart would love to chat with the media about one of their new stores.

Still, it'll be nice for you Aussies to have somewhere to go and get your iPhones, MacBooks, and Cinema Displays-- the UK store has already hit 10 million visitors. Word is that the Sydney store will open sometime after mid-2008.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Tags: 10-million, apple, apple-store, australia, retail, steve-jobs, sydney, uk, wal-mart

Filed under: Video, Internet

Wal-Mart adds insult to injury with IE-only website

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Feb 10th, 2007

We've known all along that the Wal-Mart Video Downloads service was going to be a Windows-only affair. It's sad, but that's the way that goes sometimes. Is it really necessary, however, to lock the website to Internet Explorer 6+ only? On Tuesday, TechCrunch reported that some coding mistakes on Wal-Mart's page prevented the CSS from loading in Firefox; today, Design by CSS reports that rather than fix the errors, Wal-Mart chose to block other browsers from even trying to load the page. Classy.

Other XP-only movie sites like Movielink or CinemaNow have accessible home pages, or at least a universal splash page to let you know that you can't have the sweet, chewy filmic center without IE. Naturally, Amazon Unbox is accessible with any browser, even though the downloads are locked to XP... and, in a quick reality check, one guess which mobile video player (compatible with none of the above, but only with iTunes) shows up at #1 on the bestseller list. The current ranking for the best-selling portable player (Creative Zen Vision: M) that works with Amazon Unbox movies? #63 -- and behind such barnburners as a 50-pack of CD-Rs and the iPod Power Adapter, for crying out loud.

OK, Wal-Mart, go ahead and hide your light under an IE-only bushel. Not only will we not know what we're missing, most likely we won't care, either.

[via Digg]

Tags: IE, video, wal-mart, walmart

Filed under: Video

Walmart Video Download Follow-Up

by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on Nov 28th, 2006

The Walmart/Superman FAQ just went live and here are a few more facts to follow on our earlier story.

The "portable format" will use PlayForSure.
The "standard format" will be 640x480 at approximately 1500 kbps and will occupy about a gigabyte of storage.
You can't transfer the videos between computers.
There's no Mac support whatsoever.
There's no iPod support whatsoever.
There's no Zune support whatsoever.
Playback depends on Windows Media Player 10 or higher.

Oh well. As Emily Litella would say, nevermind...

Tags: ipod, superman, video, wal-mart, walmart

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS, Apple Financial, Apple

Tell Steve not to partner with Wal-Mart

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Nov 2nd, 2006

Wal-Mart Watch, an independent organization that keeps tabs on what Wal-Mart is up to, isn't happy that Apple is considering a partnership with the big W. Recall, if you will, that Wal-Mart wasn't so happy about the iTunes Store potentially biting into their share of the movie business. The solution? Buy a coupon for that download at Wal-Mart and everyone wins (at least according to the possible partnership).

Wal-Mart Watch wants you to tell Steve not to enter into a deal with Wal-Mart. They have created a page contrasting the two company's, and Wal-Mart doesn't do so well.

I, personally, refuse to shop at Wal-Mart but I know I'm in the minority there. Let your voice be heard!

Tags: apple, wal-mart

Filed under: iTS, Rumors

Wal-Mart bullying Hollywood over iTS movie downloads?

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Sep 24th, 2006

Today's edition of 'yes they did/no they didn't' is brought to you by Wal-Mart, the New York Post and Reuters. As we knew, Wal-Mart is the largest DVD retailer (at least in America), with 40% of the market. Obviously, a player with that large of a stake in the game might not be too happy when a music download service with as much momentum as the iTunes Store announces movie downloads, and the New York Post printed a piece confirming just as much. According to the Post, Wal-Mart returned "cases and cases" of DVDs to Disney after suffering a panic attack over word of the iTS. Never one to stop at throwing product back in just one client's face, Wal-Mart then went on to throw a temper tantrum at the Hollywood studios, "overtly threatened to retaliate" by ordering fewer movies if they shook hands with the iTS. One has to wonder what happens when Wal-Mart doesn't get ice cream for desert.

On the other side of this coin, however, Reuters printed comments from a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, saying "we are not dissuading studios from conducting business with other providers." Setting aside the discussion of who competition truly benefits, a Disney spokeswoman also stated she was not familiar with the NYP claims, though Reuters failed to mention whether this spokeswoman has anything to do with the shipping department.

It's a twisted web these players are weaving, and we'll (do our best to) stay on top of who's saying what.

[via Engadget]

Tags: disney, download, downloads, its, movie, movies, new york post, NewYorkPost, nyp, reuters, wal-mart, walmart

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