Another piece of information from the Apple annual report is the growth of the business overall. Apple's gross sales went from $6.2 billion in 2003 to $13.9 billion in 2005, more than double (ending FY Sept). You might think that the iPod is the primary contributor to this growth, but of this total sales only $4.5 billion ( about 1/3 ) of it is from iPod sales. The computer side of the business is doing well too. Looking at unit sales, Apple sold 4.5 million units in 2005 compared to 3.0 million in 2003. A 50% increase! 
I guess Apple has finally arrived. They are in the middle of many lawsuits. I just received their Annual Report which shows Apple in the middle of no less than 26 lawsuits. I guess money attracts lawsuits. A lot of the lawsuits are for complaints of batteries not lasting long enough, or memory chips going bad. It seems these are things that the market can decide. Of course there is the one about iPods being too loud. And then the Apple Corps one too. There are also ones that claim patent infringement on very nebulous things such as "using a menu to find songs" or using the name Tiger from the company "Tiger Direct". Even Honeywell is suing Apple for something about liquid crystal displays. I am not a lawyer and I don't know of all the legal precident for many of these cases but I think the sheer number of lawsuits is more from the success of Apple than anything else.
I believe it is time for Apple to start to license its music protection scheme. Apple may be making the same mistake as they did in the past with the Macintosh by trying to shut everyone else out. Apple could stiffle any competitive storm which may be bruing by licencing its music format. That way Apple still remains in control and reaps some of the joint profits. Plus it would take the wind out of the competition trying to dethrone Apple. Develop allies instead of adversaries. This would be for the music downloads, not for music players. Any thoughts?
