Has Apple Seen the Height of its Success with Music?

At yesterday's MacWorld keynote, Steve Jobs unveiled no new major music initiatives at iTunes or with the iPod line. Jobs said that iTunes had passed the 4 billionth track download, but that represents a slight slow down of growth. No IPod numbers were shared, but again analysts suspect that sales growth is slowing. Those same analysts were less than impressed by the announcements that Jobs did make yesterday including movie rentals at iTunes and an amazingly thin new MacBook Air. The stock market reacted sending Apple's stock down $5.45 by the end of trading on Tuesday. Music industry observors had hoped for an Apple subscription music service or expansion of its wirelesss download platform, but Apple hinted at no such initiatives. (WebProNews)

Tooble bridges the YouTube to iTunes to iPod divide

One thing iPhone and iPod Touch users have been enjoying over the past year has been a finger optimized version of YouTube that pulls in videos on demand. However, users of older video-enabled iPods have been left to fend for themselves using a bevy of services to pull down videos from popular hosting sites and reformat them to fit using third-party conversion apps. A new service called Tooble that aims to streamline this process is showing off its wares on the Macworld Expo show floor. (WebWare)

Apple iPhone sales hit four million mark: Jobs

Apple Inc. has sold four million iPhones since the cellphone, which includes Internet access, videos and music, was launched in June, chief executive Steve Jobs said Tuesday. "That averages 20,000 iPhones a day," Jobs told a standing-room crowd in a cavernous room at the opening of the California company's annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Jobs also unveiled iPhone software upgrades including a location-detecting map feature crafted with help from Internet giant Google and wireless communications firm SkyHook. (AFP)

Apple shakes up online video plan

Apple has overhauled key elements of its online video strategy following an admission by Steve Jobs on Tuesday that the company’s early efforts had been a disappointment. The changes involve a new online rental service for movies, which was first reported in the FT last month, and a revamp of the Apple TV set-top box so that viewers can stream movies direct from the internet, without the need for a computer. In a rare admission that Apple’s first attempts had failed, Mr Jobs conceded that customers had not taken to watching online video the way Apple had expected. (Financial Times)