Connie Guglielmo, Forbes Staff
I cover the people and technology driving Silicon Valley
Seven years after opening its iTunes store in Japan, Apple returned to Asia today, opening a dozen new stores in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac and PC users will be able choose from among more than 20 million songs, from local and international artists, as well as buy and rent movies from the new iTunes stores across Asia, the company said today in a statement.
Apple opened its iTunes store in Japan in August 2005, but has yet to open one in China, its fastest growing market.
This isn’t the first Apple store in Hong Kong and the other 11 countries cited in today’s release. Apple already operates its App Store there, offering more than 650,000 apps. The App Store is available in 155 countries, the company said today. Apple has iTunes stores selling music and offering movies in about 50 countries, according to a rough estimate; I’m waiting to hear back from them on the exact number.
Apple originally opened the iTunes store in April 2003 to encourage sales of its iPod music player. It has since added the App Store and iBookstore to offer programs and content to users of its popular mobile devices. Here’s what Apple had to say about the iTunes store in its 2011 annual report:
Net sales of other music related products and services were $6.3 billion in 2011, representing an increase of $1.4 billion or 28% compared to 2010. The increase was due primarily to increased net sales from the iTunes Store, which was largely driven by App Store expansion into new countries that contributed to strong growth in all of the Company’s geographic segments. During 2011, the combined net sales for the iTunes Store, App Store and iBookstore was $5.4 billion, representing an increase of 33% compared to 2010. The Company believes this continued growth is the result of heightened consumer interest in downloading third-party digital content, continued growth in its customer base of iPhone, iPad and iPod, expansion of third-party audio and video content available via the iTunes Store, and continued interest in and growth of the App Store. Net sales of other music related products and services accounted for 6% of the Company’s total net sales for 2011.