iMac, iPod, iConquered

By Cynthia L. Webb
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Thursday, October 14, 2004; 9:50 AM

For Apple Computer, will 2004 be remembered as a transformative year?

Yes, according to The Wall Street Journal, which said the Cupertino, Calif.-based company's fourth-quarter earnings "show how the company continues to change from a traditional computer maker to a digital-entertainment company, with a particular focus in digital music." USA Today concluded that "Apple has clearly become more than a computer company," while industry analysts told The New York Times that "Apple was transforming itself from a computer company into a digital music and entertainment company."

Fueling those declarations is that fact that Apple's iPod portable music player helped the company log $2.35 billion in revenue for the quarter -- the highest amount in nine years. Apple said yesterday that it sold 500 percent more iPods compared with last year's fourth quarter.

Apple is selling more iPods than its venerable line of Macintosh computers. The company shipped 836,000 Mac units during the quarter, compared with 2 million iPods. Only 860,000 iPods were shipped in the company's third quarter.

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