Apple has reported a a net profit of US$46 million (€38.4 million) in the three months up to March – almost entirely down to its popular iPod player. The iPod sold 807,000 units during that period, Apple’s CFO Fred Anderson has stated that the player accounted for half of the company’s revenue growth.
Also this week, Apple chose to rebuff RealNetwork’s overtures regarding the iPod – obviously the streaming technology company are keen to get a sniff of the action.
Rob Glaser, RealNetworks’ CEO wants to meet Steve Jobs but, as spokesman Greg Chiemingo told AP: “He’s in the neighborhood, but whatever meeting Rob wanted with Steve isn’t happening, Steve just doesn’t want to open the iPod, and we don’t understand that.”
Oh come on guys – what do you mean you don’t understand?
Let us spell it out to you: They have the most popular music player and the most popular music service and they seem to be doing quite well without sharing it with anyone.
Apple’s second quarter results
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Fraser Lovatt
Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people.
Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon.
At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC.
After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video.
These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?
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