OK, it’s late, and I should just go straight to bed, but reading some crazy Apple rumour sites has got me thinking, so I’ll post this first.
So, there is a long FORTUNE article about the new iTunes Music Store. Theoretically there is going to be a Windows version by the end of the year, maybe even integrated with AOL.
In fact, Warner’s Roger Ames is trying to broker a deal in which AOL would adopt iTunes as its music-management software. “Steve was resistant at first,” Ames says. “But now I understand that he’s decided to go that way.”The top two models of iPod have docking stations. What if there were kiosks that you could plunk your iPod into and buy directly – with no computer at all?! Lots of Apple Retails stores to host such kiosks…
That rumour site I linked to at the top also does some fancy math numbers – As the Apple Turns:
Figure first of all that the iTunes Music Store was maybe ten times more active at its launch than it will be on an average day once the hype starts to die down. That’s 27,500 songs sold in 18 hours, or 36,667 a day, just among Mac users. Now, let’s conservatively estimate that Windows support will increase Apple’s customer base, say, eightfold, and international support will double it. That comes out to roughly 586,000 songs sold per day, even ignoring any boost that might come as Apple extends the store’s catalog beyond the stuff offered by the major labels. Word on the street is that Apple gets about 35 cents per song it sells; even after siphoning off bandwidth and support costs, we’re talking about probably at least a cool million bucks in pure profit for Apple each and every week. Yowza!