Hitwise, a leading online competitive intelligence service, announced that the market share of visits to the iTunes website (www.apple.com/itunes) was up 413 percent on Christmas Day 2006 (December 25, 2006) versus Christmas Day 2005, as new iPod owners flocked to the web to download iTunes. The Apple iTunes website outnumbered visits to Zune.net by 30 to 1.

In addition, the market share of visits to the Apple Store (store.apple.com) showed an increase of 110 percent when comparing Christmas Day 2006 to 2005. The Apple Store was the fourth most visited website in the Hitwise Retail Index on Christmas Day 2006.

The market share of visits to Zune.net, the site for downloading the music software for Microsoft's MP3 player showed an increase of 1,030 percent on December 25, 2006 versus the previous Monday (December 18, 2006). However, this strong initial performance was overshadowed by the iPod, as the market share of visits to the iTunes website increased by 1,222 percent in the same period, and outnumbered visits to Zune.net by 30 to 1.

"For the third holiday season in a row, the iPod has been the must-have Christmas gift," said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise. "Competitive offerings have not yet succeeded in capturing the attention of music listeners, and the surge in visits to the Apple Store shows that iPod owners are also engaged in filling and accessorizing their new devices."

The average daily increase in visits to the Hitwise Retail Index for the 2006 online holiday shopping season (Thanksgiving Day through the Thursday before Christmas) versus the same period in 2005 was 5.9 percent. The days with the largest individual increases over the same day in 2005 were Cyber Monday and Thanksgiving Day. Visits to the Retail 100 Index were up 13.2 percent on Monday, November 27, 2006 versus Monday, November 28, 2005 and up 11.8 percent on Thursday, November 23, 2006 versus Thursday November 24, 2005.

About the market research data

Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise’s patented methodology captures the anonymous online usage, search, and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into our easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement, and report on a range of online marketing programs.

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