Random notes from the Apple announcement

Three things we've come to expect from an Apple music event: a live performance, an iChat videoconference with a celebrity, and a stat- and graphic-filled PowerPoint, er, Keynote presentation by Steve Jobs. Today's Rokr event featured two songs by Kanye West (to a sober audience of journalists and geeks, which also included Yo-Yo Ma), a videoconference with a London-based Madonna, and the following statistics:

22 million iPods have been sold worldwide (from the iPod's introduction to the end of June 2005)

6.2 million were sold worldwide in the June 2005 quarter alone

2 million Sony PSPs were sold in the same quarter

The iPod franchise has 74 percent of the market share in the United States for all MP3 players

There are more than 1,000 accessories for the iPod

iPod connectivity as an option was introduced in the Honda, the Acura, the Audi, and the Volkswagen

30 percent of cars in the United States will have an iPod option in 2006

The iPod Mini is the most popular MP3 player in the world (in terms of players sold)

The iPod Nano is thinner than a No. 2 pencil

It's also 80 percent smaller than the original iPod

And 62 percent smaller than the iPod Mini

And 69 percent smaller than the Creative Zen Micro

And 58 percent smaller than the Creative Zen Neon

And 67 percent smaller than the Sony NW-HD5

And 66 percent smaller than the Motorola Razr

The iTunes Music Store has sold half a billion songs to date

It currently sells 1.8 million songs a day

It has an 82 percent market share for downloads in the United States

There are iTunes Music Stores in 20 countries

There are 7 million podcast subscriptions to date

There are 15,000 podcasts in the iTunes directory and a thousand new ones added each week

iTunes now has 2 million songs

The iTunes Music Store has 10 million accounts

The average number of songs downloaded by a user is 60