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Story: Apple notches up 50 million iTunes sales

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Ina

DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE JUMPING THE GUN YET AGAIN ...OR DID YOU SIMPLY GET YOUR CHECK FROM M$ ON TIME FOR A CHANGE ...AND THROUGH YOU OWED THEM ANOTHER ONE!

This would all be very interesting, if it were true. However, unlike CNET, we (MacDailyNews) are forced to let the facts get in the way. Fact number one is that until April 28, 2004, the one year anniversary of iTunes and the date Steve Jobs' set for the 100 million song goal, Apple has not failed to hit its target. Fact number two, and this is the big one, is that Jobs plans to count the Pepsi redemptions toward the 100 million songs sold - after all they are actually songs sold. The songs redeemed are paid for by Pepsi.

Steve Jobs specifically stated, in explaining how Apple would hit the 100 million songs sold mark, "What are we going to do [to sell 100 million songs in a year]? We're going to give away a hundred million songs. You heard me right. We are so proud to be partnering with Pepsi on this... So, a hundred million songs by April 28, 2004 - this is our goal - we're going to Windows [with an iTunes version], partner with AOL, ...and we're going to give away 100 million songs with Pepsi... So, we think we've got a really good shot at selling 100 million legal downloads the first year." See it for yourself during Jobs' presentation from the Moscone Center in San Francisco during Apple's "iTunes for Windows Introduction" on October 16, 2003 here. Jobs' remarks on this 100 million song goal begin at 43:30 into the presentation.

Clearly, Jobs intends to count the Pepsi redemptions. None of these redemptions is included in today's announcement of over 50 million songs sold. And it is not yet April 28, 2004. Fried is wrong to pretend that Apple has not hit its goal. No one can know until April 28, 2004 and all of the songs sold are counted.

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