Post by
jgarcia on Oct 12, 2005 2:42pm
Apple's Jobs Unveils IPod Video Player, New M
https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aU1h75P4yLTE&refer=us
Apple's Jobs Unveils IPod Video Player, New Mac PCs (Update1)
Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled a version of the best-selling iPod digital music player that also shows videos and an iMac computer with a remote control and built-in video camera.
The video iPod, available in black or white starting next week, has a 2 1/2-inch color display and holds as many as 150 hours of video, along with music and photos, Jobs said today in a ``three act'' event at the California Theater in San Jose. The devices, slimmer than the classic white iPods, sell for as much as $399.
The event marked the second time in a month that Jobs has added new designs to capitalize on demand for the iPod, Apple's fastest-selling product. The Cupertino, California-based company, which made its name with Macintosh computers, last month unveiled the pencil-thin Nano and said yesterday it can't make the players fast enough to fill orders.
``It is becoming an entertainment company, not a computer company,'' said Matt Kelmon, who helps manages $750 million at Palo Alto, California-based Kelmoore Investment Co. ``People don't say `Apple Computer' anymore; they say `Apple.' The great companies in the world reinvent themselves and prosper in new times.''
Jobs, 50, dressed in all black, unveiled the players on the same stage where he last year announced the iPod Photo, the first model with a color screen and photo-handling capabilities, and a special edition player with Bono of the rock band U2.
Apple's iTunes store will sell music videos for $1.99 and has a library of 2,000 offerings available today. The company also will sell $1.99 animated short films from Jobs's other company, Pixar.
Shares of Apple fell $2.14 to $49.45 at 2:01 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares had risen 60 percent this year before today after more than tripling last year.
`Staggering Demand'
``This is the best music player we've ever made,'' Jobs said. The 30-gigabyte video iPod costs $299 and stores 75 hours of video, he said. A 60-gigabyte version is $399.
Apple has sold 28.2 million players since they came out in 2001. The iPod is the best-selling music player in the U.S., accounting for 72 percent of all devices sold in the eight months through August, said NPD Group Inc. of Port Washington, New York. Apple's nearest rival, SanDisk Corp., captured a 5 percent share.
The company gets about a third of its sales from the iPod and sales of music through its iTunes online store. Apple said yesterday that iPod shipments reached a record 6.45 million units, short of the 6.7 million to 8.5 million analysts anticipated and prompting a drop in the shares today.
The Nano, unveiled Sept. 7, accounted for 1 million of the devices sold last quarter. Apple yesterday described demand as ``staggering'' and said a parts shortage made it difficult to say when the company will be able to build enough to fill orders.
Apple has sold more than 500 million songs and has more than 10 million iTunes account holders, who have bought on average 60 songs each, Jobs said in September. ITunes sells songs for 99 cents apiece in the U.S.
New Macs
The new iMac, slimmer than last year's all-in-one model, snaps photos and runs video conferences. The remote, with six buttons instead of some controls that have 40 or more, lets people rewind and fast forward DVDs from across the room, Jobs said.
The computers are available today, he said. A model with a 17- inch monitor costs $1,299 and one with a 20-inch screen is $1,699.
Shipments of Macintosh computers, Apple's most-profitable products, reached a five-year high last quarter, spurred on by consumer interest in the iPod. Apple has shipped 1 million of the all-in-one iMacs in the past year, Jobs said today.
Apple said yesterday it sold 1.24 million Macs last quarter, the fourth straight period shipments topped 1 million.
The company climbed a notch to become the No. 4 maker of PCs in the U.S. in the calendar second quarter after Mac sales increased almost three times faster than overall PC sales, according to researcher IDC.
Apple won 4.5 percent of the market to trail Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Gateway Inc. after Mac shipments rose 33 percent, Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC said. The overall market gained 12 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Connie Guglielmo in San Francisco at cguglielmo1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 12, 2005 14:03 EDT