Appletell

Since its introduction by Apple on January 9th, 2001, iTunes has become one of the most popular music library organization apps ever.  It started off simple and eventually became what it is today, a place not only to organize files, but to shop, learn, and watch.  With so much growth, large deals, and new features in the past few years, it makes me wonder where iTune’s place will be in the future.  When digital sales take over physical media, will it be because of iTunes?  Will iTunes one day start a revolution in how we purchase and handle all of our DVDs, music, and TV shows?  Or will iTunes eventually slip away into the past and be replaced by a whole new app or movement?

With the direction iTunes is headed now, it seems like it very well could be the driving force behind moving totally to digital sales for some.  It has one of the biggest music selections available anywhere, allows you to rent movies, releases new DVD titles the same day as hard copies, and contains all sort of other media, such as podcasts and TV shows.  With only a couple more deals and updates, iTunes could soon be the place to go for all of your media.  This would almost completely eliminate the need for physical media.  Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t think this will happen anytime very soon, but it is possible.  But what would seal the deal for moving completely to digital media?

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Today, Apple celebrates the fifth anniversary of its iTunes store with a look back at “all of the great music, video, and exclusives” that users discovered on iTunes, and highlighting the songs and shows that defined each year of the iTunes store’s life. Apple gives a brief history along with a collection of “best sellers” on its iTunes store today, and claims its music catalogue grew from over 200,000 songs and a handful of exclusive tracks to over 10 million songs, according to information available on the iTunes store.

Earlier this month, Apple announced that the iTunes Store surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the United States, based on data from January and February of 2008. Apple also stated that it had served over 50 million customers and sold more than four billion songs.

iTunes makes up approximately 70 percent of digital music sold worldwide. It is estimated that in the next five years, Apple’s media service may account for a staggering 28 percent of all music sold worldwide.

Via [The iPod Observer]

Apple is getting sick of all the iPhone clones overseas and is beginning to crack down on sellers of the devices.  It is known that the most clones are showing up in China, where Apple’s iPhone is too expensive for most of the consumers.  For example, Apple has began to pursue legal action against such sellers as Digital Playworld.  According to Playworld’s managing director, they had to remove all the clones from their website, promise to not sell any more clones, and tell Apple who supplied them with the products and how much was payed for them.  This was done to avoid a harsh lawsuit against the company.

In their letter to the company, Apple stated that the clone “looks very like the iPhone.” It appears that Apple has had enough and is no longer ignoring the issue.  Hopefully these clones help Apple realize that they need to drop the price if they really want the phone to succeed.  Despite all this, Apple has reported in its second quarter press release that 1,703,000 iPhones have been sold in this quarter.

Via [MacNN]

First Fox did it, and now Lionsgate will be joining them in using iTunes Digital Copy on some DVDs. Digital Copy allows DVDs to be transferred and imported to iTunes in a DRM format, essentially giving buyers multiple ways to watch the movie, rather than simply playing the DVD on a standard player and television. Fox took advantage of this a few months ago, and Lionsgate plans to do the same. The first two titles from Lionsgate to receive the Digital Copy treatment are Rambo and The Eye. Alright, so they didn’t pick the best films, but if you were planning on buying these on DVD anyway, things just got better. Lionsgate says that the Digital Copy will only be included on the special edition DVD and the Blu-ray version. Of course, these two are a bit more pricy than the plain DVD, which is a disadvantage if you’re a chronic DVD buyer and are looking to budget. Lionsgate said that more titles will be released after, and it is rumored that these first Digital Copy versions will be hitting stores sometime this summer.

Via [Ars Technica]

We’ve heard dozens of rumors about iTunes movie rentals - but this rumor seems very realistic - and it is not simply movie rentals as the spectators at Macworld would expect, it’s done in a new kind of way, Apple style. When you insert an iTunes-compatible DVD from Fox to your Mac or PC, iTunes will start up and prompt you to copy the file into your iTunes library. This file will be in H.264 enhanced digital at 1.5mbps. Which is pretty good quality. I’m pretty sure that these files are intended for on-the-go usage. For example, you copy the files into iTunes, transfer to your iPod and watch it on the plane. This is a new system and I think it will work perfectly. The only problem is that these files are likely to be heavily loaded with DRM, and that’s not good news coming from a company that is trying to push the DRM-free format.

A tipster at TUAW, Stewart, said he bought an early copy of a Family Guy DVD due for release on January 15th (Macworld date), and that it was branded iPod-compatible. He posted pictures and screenshots on the TUAW post linked below.

Via [TUAW]

That’s right, according for first quarter 2007 reports, the Apple iTunes store has boosted it’s sales to become the 3rd largest music retailer in the US. Apple is now sitting ahead of Amazon at 9.8% of all music purchases, close behind Best Buy and Walmart.

The findings also show that an astonishing 86.2% of all sales were in the physical (CD) format, compared to 13.8% in digital. The music industry, more specifically the RIAA, would still like us to believe that we’re filthy pirates, but with most music still being bought in a DRM-free, CD format, it makes you wonder why our downloadable songs are still DRM’d.

Read [iLounge] Via [Digg]