More Videos
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- Intel's Andy Bryant Offers An Explanation
- Apple's Global Retail Invasion
- Intel Settles; AMD Settles the Score
- HP's Shot Across Cisco's Bow
- Back Off, Regulators!
- iPhone, App Strategy the 'New Dot Com?'
- Cisco Jumps; Rest of Market to Follow?
- Call It 'Microsoft Math'
- Intel in the Anti-Trust Crosshairs, but Why?
MOST SHARED
- U.S. May Wind Up Green With Envy
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: 'I Haven't Bought American Express In Years'
- Japan Third Quarter GDP Jumps; 2010 Growth May Slow
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- EADS Cautious on Full-Year Forecast after Earnings Dip
- Stronger Yuan Needed for Global Rebalancing: IMF Chief
- Sustainability Indices Sprouting Up
- Taking a Page from Obama's Asia Agenda in Investing
- GM to Start Repaying $6.7 Billion US Government Loan
- BlackRock: Central Banks To Be Net Buyers of Gold
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: 'I Haven't Bought American Express In Years'
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- U.S. Stocks Rally for the Second Straight Week
- Dollar is Not Plunging—So 'Calm Down': Market Strategist
- Strategists Say Markets Have More Upside — But How Much?
- Hirschhorn: Risk-Averse Traders
- Roginsky: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Financial Reform
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
- Cisco Ups Tandberg Bid, Claims Over 40% Backing
- 'Significant Weakness' Still Ahead: Fed's Hoenig
- BlackRock: Central Banks To Be Net Buyers of Gold
- Stronger Yuan Needed for Global Rebalancing: IMF Chief
- Washington Not Trying to Contain China: Obama
- Japan Third Quarter GDP Jumps; 2010 Growth May Slow
- Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Green?
- JP Morgan to Bid Over $3 Billion for Cazenove Stake
- Buffett: I Haven't Bought AMEX Shares in Years
RSS FEED
Tech Check
Text Size 
Some of us knew it was going to happen; it was just a matter of when.
Over the last several Apple [AAPL
Loading...
()
] events, it seemed as if Steve Jobs would always throw a graphic up on the big screen behind him to show the progress iTunes had been making against more traditional, established music retailers.
Today, Apple finally lays claim to the industry's top spot: No. 1 music retailer -- surpassing Wal-Mart Stores [WMT
Loading...
()
] ! -- based on the latest data from NPD.
Apple says that with over 50 million customers, iTunes has now sold over 4 billion songs and features the world's largest music catalog, with six million tracks. About 19 percent of all music purchases are done on iTunes, compared to 15 percent at Wal-Mart. Customers bought a stunning 200 million songs last Christmas Day alone.
In a release this afternoon, iTunes general manager Eddy Cue says, "We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world. We are thrilled and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone."
And a heck of a milestone it is. The company has regularly been gobbling up market share from the likes of Target [TGT
Loading...
()
] , Best Buy [BBY
Loading...
()
] , Amazon [AMZN
Loading...
()
] , Wal-Mart and others for some time. And Apple's ascension into the top spot comes amid increasing competition in the marketplace. Seems like everyone is trying to get into the online music business. Just like News Corp.'s [NWS
Loading...
()
] MySpace!
Apple certainly wasn't the first, but it established itself as the easiest to use. Of course, that didn't come without ruffled feathers and some controversy over pricing and the so-called closed eco-system of iPod/iPhone and iTunes.
Controversies aside, Apple owns the market. And it eclipsed all its competitors in just five years -- that's a staggering achievement.
And looking over the list, another tid-bit worth mentioning: RealNetworks [RNWK
Loading...
()
] and its Rhapsody service cracked the Top 10 with 1 percent of the market. Not much, sure, but its partnerships with MTV, Nokia [NOK
Loading...
()
] and Yahoo [YHOO
Loading...
()
] could help the company continue to gain ground.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes