BIZ BITS: THE WORD NOVEMBER 2005

CEO Soundbyte
Steve Jobs CEO Apple
Steve Jobs founded Apple in 1976 and co-founded the animation studios Pixar in 1986. He became one of the most successful businessmen in the world by creating the Apple Macintosh in 1984. With a simple-to-use, graphical interface, the Macintosh soon became the standard home computer. And although he was sacked from Apple in 1985 during a bitter power struggle, he returned in 1997 and has continued to revolutionize the personal computing and electronics industry to this day, introducing the enormously successful iPod and the online music store, iTunes. As he notes here, the success of iTunes is largely thanks to a recent surge in visitors, who return again and again.

“iTunes has sold over half a billion songs to date and we are selling songs at a rate of 1.8 million songs a day because it now represents 82% of the US market share and around 85% of the global online music market.

We now have 2 million songs on iTunes compared to the 200,000 songs we had two and a half years ago.

In addition, we now have 10 million accounts—and they come with credit cards.

If you take 10 million accounts and divide that into the number of songs we’ve sold it means the average account holder has purchased 60 songs. These people aren’t buying two songs and not coming back, they’re people who have returned and used the service numerous times.

Most of these accounts have been added in the past year, so you can get a feel for their purchasing. It’s significant.”

Business Brew
First in Thirst Darren Rovell
In business, as in sports, success doesn’t happen by accident. Forty years after developing the world’s first athletic drink, Gatorade still dominates the multi-billion dollar industry. ESPN reporter Darren Rovell’s First in Thirst traces the company’s tumultuous history, from its inception on the University of Florida’s football fields to its memorable “Be like Mike” ad campaign. Rovell recounts the behind-the-scenes struggles and boardroom battles that shaped America’s top sports drink manufacturer. First in Thirst also lists the “Gatorade Rules,” nine strategies, such as “Stay Disciplined” and “Packaging Counts,” that helped the company conquer the market. An instructive overview of a business success. Out now (Amacom publishing, hardcover, $21.95)

The Closing Bell by Jack Guinan

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