iTunes Music Sales: Mac vs. Windows

Best I could find was this:

One analyst asked if based on registration card data, Apple has a mix of how many iPod users are running Windows. Oppenheimer said that Apple is "collecting registration cards" but won't release the data "for competitive reasons."

Yep, Apple unfortunately doesn't release that data.

Not sure of direct answers to your questions, but it seems the majority of questions that are asked to employees at your average Apple store, are PC related.

Every time I go in there, all I hear are customers asking questions about their PCs, and how the iPod won't work right, or iTunes won't install, etc. They say they are using Windows XP, ME, 2000... I find it funny, but not funny at the same time.

A possible ironic ad on the newspaper: "PC professionals... Looking for part-time work? Come to the Apple store."

On Windows iTunes application is fairly pale compared to what's available. I already use skinned WinAmp for playing music, managing playlists, and listening to the Shoutcast stations. Besides, the UI is clunky and sometimes unresponsive. WinAmp or WMP is not native Win32 widgets either, but they seem to be more responsive. Real is in the same camp as Apple - bloated apps with very different UIs and poor performance with *noticeable* pauses even on a 3 GHz CPU.

I created an account in iTMS but after I kept fighting application idiosynrasies, I gave up. Napster does the job just as well, but I would really like someone like Amazon to step in with their single click downloads and easy UI.

At Apple's iTunes forum, there are over twice as many Windows threads as Mac ones. In the iTunes forums at iPodlounge, the ratio is nearly 4 to 1 in favor of Windows.

Whether this can be linked to music or iPod sales data is anyone's guess. It could just mean Windows users are more chatty, or more confused.

> Besides, the UI is clunky and sometimes unresponsive

I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing that. It's really annoying. You never know whether you have now copied the song from a playlist to another one or not.

And it has hickups. Imagine that, hickups in decoding (!) simple mp3.

I believe Apple should focus more on the Windows platform and not make it an after-thought. The success of the iPods, I believe, is to a large extent because it works on Windows as well.

NetRatings has all the answers you require - they can track everything a user does on their panel of over a million people. THey would be able to derive the numbers you are looking for with ease.

NetRatings has all the answers you require - they can track everything a user does on their panel of over a million people. THey would be able to derive the numbers you are looking for with ease.

Why you blocking tanya(dot)com e-mail addresses?
Some people don't want to post with real e-mail addresses due to spam and what not.

I run iTunes on three Windows PCs and a Apple Powerbook and never have had problems with any one of them. In fact, I rip the MP3s on my main PC desktop because its faster and then import them into my Powerbook as well.

Also, I think that Windows should be an afterthought because its an service that Apple provides to users who are not on their platform. No software company gives other platforms highest priority. When you put 19" alloy wheels on your Yugo and it gives you problems, please don't blame the wheels :)

And why would Apple go out of its way to "make it work better" with Windows especially when iPod's popularity is trickling into sales of its laptops and desktops.

Without a doubt, iPod is not the best jukebox application and if its not working then WinAmp or MusicMatch are good options on Windows. But Apple does not *need* to bend over backwards to adapt to a inferior operating system.

Anjan

So... Anjan, you're saying that the best way for Apple to introduce prospective customers to their services and entice them to spend thousands of dollars to switch is to provide them a buggy program on the platform they currently use? iTunes should be a gateway drug to Appledom, in that it's the best, most addictive cut, not something that is sort of buggy and not horribly reliable regardless of how flawlessly it operates on native hardware.

and the related question: is there a difference across the operating systems for average spends per account in the iTunes Store? Has anyone seen data on this?

B-)

jr,

I do agree with you that iTunes needs to work perfectly. Matter of fact, like Jeremy mentioned a few weeks ago, iTunes is strangely lacking in some obvious features. However, I've yet to see a bug or a crash on my iTunes which I use on one Powerbook and three Windows desktops.

What I was alluring to was that a free software only gets so much support, not just by Apple, but by anyone. By design Windows is extremely buggy and its not surprising that some stray dll is causing all this grief. Should Apple bend over backwards to fix this? I don't think so. Now this person buys an iPod and has a problem? Of course they will work with you to iron out the problem.

This has nothing to do with Apple in specific and everything to do with a viable business model of *every* software vendor.

Anjan

We have been reading blogs all over the internet about iTunes/digital downloading in hopes of finding others that share an interest in this young form of music purchasing.

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Everytime our song "We Get Bigh" is downloaded from Audio Lunchbox or iTunes, all proceeds go to fight cancer! Its an easy way to give back.

Please consider our song "We Get Bigh" next time you are purchasing from iTunes or Audio Lunchbox.
Help us help each other.

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Peace,
Asher Kahn Band

I have been demoing my music to potential clients with a www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=262]Rio Nitris , but I hear the Ipod stores more. But it also costs more. Which one do you guys use?

I also saw that 1-800-Flowers is giving away a new Ipod everyday for a month. So i am hoping to win one. You can enter without purchase too, although I did by some flowers for a cutie :) http://www.1800flowers.com/contests/ipod_sweep.asp

does anyone have an idea about buying music through Itunes if I live in Mexico?
I just found out, that I have to have a US credit card to buy music, and that really sucks, specially if I bought a g5 in this country (mexico)
My country is not included in the country list for iTunes. is there any other way to solve this issue?

I'm a old Grandpa PC guy with a plea.

I began buying iTunes just to please my Kids and Grandkids in emails but I can't get thru to anyone on how I can "pre authorize" them so they'll play when recieved.

To anyone who helps, I'll say a prayer that you win the powerball (old but still with it, eh?)

Good question - thought it worth a post even tho this thread is way old.

Answer is the estimate is a minimum of 75 percent of Apple's customer base overall are MS Windows PC users - who love iTunes but have no interest in ever buying buy a Mac. No specific official stats get published, but people I have spoken in the industry gain this estimate through some basic and fairly obvious math.

In the US the Macintosh market-share has been fluctuating between 4 and 6 percent. (As a comparison, HP plus Dell have a combined market share of about 65 percent). Meanwhile the iTunes market-share is generally between 70 and 80 percent (that is strictly the download market. It is bizarre and interesting to note the number one retailer of music overall in the US is now Walmart!). Anyway, if you put that 6 percent against the 80 percent - and even if you assume the Mac customers are huge music fans and download triple the music a Microsoft user might, it is still impossible to project more than about a quarter of Apple's revenue coming from Mac owners.

At the same time, a significant number of Intel Mac owners dual boot (or virtualize) MS WIndows for compatibility reasons. So Mac customers are Microsoft customers and vis versa! The two companies profit from each-other far more than they compete.

The big faceoff (if any) is currently with online services, particularly Google versus Microsoft, and in the Enterprise sector, Microsoft versus Linux (particularly Novell SuSE). Apple have essentially no involvement in either of those markets - and even there we are seeing partnerships being forged as much as competition.

But the Mac versus PC notion is long gone and exists only in the mythology of those witty and enjoyable Apple TV ads... not in the real world though.

By the way, sorry Dave Druley, you cannot preauthorize iTunes downloads for someone else. They are authorized only for the account which downloaded them and cannot be transferred to anyone. The solution is buy your loved ones iTunes gift cards instead. A clumsy workaround is to make a CD of the songs. Once on CD they are just regular music tracks and no longer require authorization - but they also lose the title and artists info...