Sales

iPod quarterly sales. Click for table of data and sources. Note that Q1 is Oct - Dec of previous year

Since October 2004, the iPod line has dominated digital music player sales in the United States, with over 90% of the market for hard drive-based players and over 70% of the market for all types of players. During the year from January 2004 to January 2005, the high rate of sales caused its U.S. market share to increase from 31% to 65% and in July 2005, this market share was measured at 74%. In January 2007 the iPod market share reached 72.7% according to Bloomberg Online.

The release of the iPod Mini helped to ensure this success at a time when competing flash-based music players were once dominant. On 8 January 2004, Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced that they would sell HP-branded iPods under a license agreement from Apple. Several new retail channels were used—including Wal-Mart—and these iPods eventually made up 5% of all iPod sales. In July 2005, HP stopped selling iPods due to unfavorable terms and conditions imposed by Apple.

In January 2007, Apple reported record quarterly revenue of US$7.1 billion, of which 48% was made from iPod sales.

On 9 April 2007, it was announced that Apple had sold its one-hundred millionth iPod, making it the biggest selling digital music player of all time. In April 2007, Apple reported second quarter revenue of US$5.2 billion, of which 32% was made from iPod sales. Apple and several industry analysts suggest that iPod users are likely to purchase other Apple products such as Mac computers.

On 5 September 2007, during their "The Beat Goes On" event, Apple announced that the iPod line had surpassed 110 million units sold.

On 22 October 2007, Apple reported quarterly revenue of US$6.22 billion, of which 30.69% came from Apple notebook sales, 19.22% from desktop sales and 26% from iPod sales. Apple's 2007 year revenue increased to US$24.01 billion with US$3.5 billion in profits. Apple ended the fiscal year 2007 with US$15.4 billion in cash and no debt.

On 22 January 2008, Apple reported the best quarter revenue and earnings in Apple's history so far. Apple posted record revenue of $9.6 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion. 42% of Apple's revenue for the First fiscal quarter of 2008 came from iPod sales, followed by 21% from notebook sales and 16% from desktop sales. Apple has sold over 163M iPods to date (see chart).

On 21 October 2008, Apple reported that only 14.21% of total revenue for fiscal quarter 4 of year 2008 came from iPod.