Apple’s ‘Let’s Talk iPhone’ Keynote: Some Mind Blowing Stats

I’m watching the Apple event online right now, like almost everyone I know. I have to admit, it was a little strange to see it in such a small place (they held it in the Apple home theater), and it was even more strange to see Tim Cook walk out on that stage instead of Steve Jobs. He didn’t look the least bit nervous; even though he had to be feeling the pressure I’m sure.

As always in these Apple keynotes, they are full of stats, which most of us people love. In case you missed it, I thought I’d share a few with you in this quick article. He talked a little bit about Apple stores around the world, and I remember seeing the one in Shanghai being built when I was there. It’s now the largest Apple store in Asia. There are a total of 357 Apple stores in 11 countries! Of course, there will be many more than that soon.

Tim said the Mac platform has grown by 23% since last year, and the PC has grown by 4%. That means Apple has grown its market share by 23% since last month. Wow! Richard just wrote an article the other day about how the number one computer used by university students is now a Mac.

Just to give you an idea about what Apple has been able to accomplish, over 300 million iPods have been sold. Tim pointed out that it took Sony 30 years to sell 220,000 Walkman cassette players. That of course brings us to iTunes where he pointed out that there have been over 16 billion (with a b) songs downloaded!

Tim made a few jokes and tried give a few teasers about the iPhone, and even though he is a great speaker, I’m sure some people will still give him slack because he doesn’t quite have the charisma of Steve, but then again, few people in the world do. Before any news about the iPhone was released, Scott Forstall took the stage.

As he began talking about the new greeting card app (American Greetings and Hallmark, ya’ll just got your asses handed to you), I started to think about how happy I am to live in during the time of Apple’s reign. It’s is truly inspiring to hear these stats and know that truly anything is possible! Okay… while I publish this, I will patiently wait for the iPhone news. Great… iOS5 will be live October 12th, and the news from Eddy Cue about the iCloud is fantastic, and thanks Phil Shiller for the news about the iPod (yawn). I think this is a good time for a bathroom break, I mean… c’mon guys, get to the juicy stuff! Am I buying an upgraded iPhone 4 or an iPhone 5? Spit it out already! :)

Oh my gosh, it’s official! It’s an iPhone 4S! 7 times faster than the iPhone 4! Tune in right now, live… here!