Apple shares jumped 6.3% today on news that iPod sales were 3 times better than expected, but the only people to be surprised were the analysts and those who listen to them.

For everybody else with common sense, there has not been a success story more visible than that of the iPod. Just try and count the white earphones next time you take the subway. Or walk into an Apple store and witness the line of people waiting to walk up to the registrar with nothing in their hands - they are almost certainly buying an iPod, a mere 2 minute, simple trade that brings in an average of $250 for the Apple register. If you paid attention to the retailers, there was one buzz word this quarter - iPod, iPod, iPod. Amazon.com has their top 10 sales in electronics; I am sure it must have been delightful for Apple investors to see almost every incarnation of the iPod rank among the top 10.

Three years into Apple’s great run, there have been countless reports of its impending doom, yet today their financials look solid (albeit the stock is a little bit overpriced, but for many, well worth the premium) and the world’s appetite for their products, inexorable. Their mac line is improving, and Steve jobs has done an amazing job addressing the Apple fans regarding the Intel switch:

That’s exactly the kind of enthusiasm that will ease the anxiety of Mac loyals around the world.

Technology wise, however, many were dissapointed today. There were no new iPods, no iPhone, no big content deals, and no buzzword worthy innovations. I think they’ve given the street plenty to think about for a couple of weeks before they throw us another bone.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2006 at 5:56 pm and is filed under hardware, software, finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.