As things stand, Apple says it has 73.8 percent of the market, followed by 18 percent held by "other", SanDisk at 7.2 percent and Microsoft at 1.1 percent share. Apple's own data shows that 50 percent of new iPod sales are to new customers (didn't previously own one) and the total number of iPod sales is closing in on 225 million units.
The fastest growing model is the iPod Touch, which has sold over 20 million units since it was unveiled two years ago by the company. This means that 40 percent of the "iPhone platform" is accounted for with the iPod Touch (20 million sales for Touch, 30 million sales for iPhone).
Apple quoted BusinessWeek as saying, "Apple could be on the cusp of claiming the crown as the world's leading in pocket gaming,", referring to the use of an iPod Touch as a portable games device. To emphasize the company's point further, it touted that the PlayStation Portable has 607 games available, the Nintendo DS has 3,680 games available, and the prices of the games for both platforms are easily higher than games sold at App Store.
It then went on to point out that technically, 21,178 games are now available from the App Store.
Apple has also introduced iTunes 9, with a full set of new features. The company also revealed a 64GB iPod Touch, lower price on 160GB iPod Classic, new Shuffles, and a camera-equipped Nano. Also notably, Apple has sold 30 million iPhones, served 1.8 billion Apps, and iTunes has sold 8.5 billion songs.
UPDATE 1: "Apple has created a world class gaming platform. Ubisoft is putting the finishing touches on one of our hottest properties: Assassins Creed 2," Ubisoft has commented on the App Store. Gameloft also showed off "Nova", first person shooter title, followed by EA with Madden NFL 2010.
Written by: James Delahunty @ 9 Sep 2009 13:52
