A Million Video Downloads for ITunes

Watching videos on a two and a half inch screen wasn’t something people appreciated, or thought would be a good idea. Well, they’ve been proven wrong and ’they’ include myself. I’m finally planning to buy one for myself now.

More than a million videos have been downloaded ever since Apple Inc. launched its video download service three weeks ago. The company announced today it has sold 1 million video downloads during the first three weeks they were available on its iTunes online store. The top selling downloads, priced at $ 1.99 each, included music videos from Michael Jackson and Fatboy Slim and episodes of ABC’s hit TV shows "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives."

Apple launched video on its popular online store Oct. 12, the same day it announced the release of a video iPod. The company offers a total of 2,000 videos, including music videos, short films from the animation studio Pixar, run by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

"Selling one million videos in less than 20 days strongly suggests there is a market for legal video downloads", said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings, so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods".

The news comes as Korean Electronics Giant, Samsung announced its plans to venture into online music download services to take a bite off the Apple’s huge market share.

Apple shares gained $ US 2.63, or 4.8 per cent, to $ US 57.10 on the Nasdaq in afternoon trade.