Back in April, iTunes took the lead as music retailer from Wal-Mart. The first half of year is now officially over, and iTunes is still in command of the lead. According to the NPD’s latest release of music retail rankings from January 08 – June 08, iTunes remains on top while Amazon moved up from the fifth spot, to fourth place.

1. iTunes
2. Wal-Mart (Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads)
3. Best Buy (Best Buy, Bestbuy.com, Best Buy Digital Music Store)
4. Amazon (Amazon.com, AmazonMP3.com)
5. Target (Target and Target.com)

Russ Crupnick, an analyst of NPD had this to say about the recent rankings, “We expect Apple will consolidate its lead in the retail music market, as CD sales continue to slow” … (on the rise of Amazon from #5 to #4) “Amazon’s CD buyers tend to be older, so they haven’t abandoned the CD format to the extent seen in the average music buyer. Plus Amazon’s successful introduction of its digital download store will help the company improve its position in the future”

It has now been 10 days since the launch of the 3G iPhone. Unless you’ve been hiding out in a cave, then you’d know that the handset has seen success since its’ unveiling. Until now no one knew just how much of a success it was. Apple has come out and said that their handsets have been sold out at all of the US locations except stores in New York, New Hampshire, and California. These locations only have the 16 GB model, as all the 8 GB models have been sold out.

AT&T that most stores sold out of the iPhone the first day, and some extremely dedicated customers waited in line 3-5 days for the handset. Estimates of the global sales of the 3G iPhone range anywhere from 500,000 units to 1 million units depending on who you talk to. One thing is for sure though, the 3G iPhone has made a definite impact and will be a hard item to come by in the next few months.

Apple is moving its’ retail space into China starting tomorrow. It will the first official Apple store in the country, and looks quite impressive so far. The build will be situated in Beijing, at the Sanlitun entertainment district. The store will open at 10 AM.

Apple is looking to expand into China even further, saying they will be adding more stores in Beijing, Shanghai and beyond. The store will have almost the exact same features of other Apple stores. One big highlight missing when the store opens will be the iPhone. Apple is still in talks with China’s primary wireless provider to lay out plans for the introduction of the iPhone. The largest obstacle will be implementing the 3G iPhone as China has no standard 3G network as of now.

The 32 GB iPod Touch will be available when the store opens, which will retail for 4,488 Chinese yuan (USD $647.33). This will be a story to keep an eye on going into next week, to see how successful Apple is with their first official foray into the Chinese market.

Those who like to keep up with numbers of the company they support, should be happy to know Apple has moved up in US PC market share. The numbers were released today, and Apple passed Acer to claim the #3 spot, with a 8.5% market share in the US.

Apple posted the largest percentage of growth from Q2 of last year to the current Q2 with a 38.1% growth. Dell had the second largest growth at 11.9%. Apple has a while to go still before they can even think about getting the #1 or 2 spot. Dell and HP each have a 31.9% and 25.3% market share respectively.

(Photo Credit: Gartner.com)

The biggest surprise once I heard this news, is how long it took Apple to file a lawsuit. A month or two ago, it was announced that a company named Psystar would start selling knock-off Mac computers. The company took low cost PC parts and pieced together a machine capable of running Mac OS X.

It sounded like a good plan, and the comapny actually received a fair amount of media coverage. Of course the big question was, ‘What are the legal ramifications of a company doing this?’

Apparently Apple is asking the same question when it brings its’ lawsuit again Psystar. Apple has and probably will remain quiet about the suit, and probably let the courts handle everything, keeping the suit out of the media as much as possible. Apple will be seeking a suit, with the grounds of copyright infringement.

It seems like any information concerning Apple these days pretty much relates to the 3G iPhone. 8am on July 11th can’t come quickly enough, as that’s when I will become a proud owner of the 3G iPhone. Apparently there are a couple of things we need to know before making our purchase.

First, there are a few items and pieces of information that you’ll need before making a purchase:

* Credit card
* Social security number
* Valid, government-issued photo ID
* Your current wireless account number and password or PIN (if you’re new to AT&T)

Also, Apple is going with the tried-and true system of making a first come, first serve basis. “iPhone 3G will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis, and sales will start at 8:00 a.m. Arrive early to get in line as daily quantities are limited by stock on hand.”

Hope everyone is able to pick their 3G iPhone up come July 11th.