10:24 a.m. Cards is a new app being introduced. It lets you create and mail beauitful cards right from your iPhone or iPod touch. You make the card, Apple does the rest, printing it out on 100% cotton paper. There’s over 21 different designs in 6 different categories: including birthdays, birth announcements, love, travel.
10:24 a.m. Apple has paid more than $3 billion to app developers
10:23 a.m. The app store is the number one store for mobile apps. In a little over three years, customers have downloaded over 18 billion apps. And that rate is accelerating: 1 billion apps are being downloaded each month.
10:22 a.m. So Apple has sold 250 million iOS devices. iOS has 43% of the mobile market. Android has 33%, according to their pie chart. iOS makes up over 60% of the mobile browsing market. There are over 500,000 apps in the app store, including over 140,000 iPad-specific apps.
10:22 a.m. Scott Forstall is taking the stage to talk to us about iOS.
10:22 a.m. This morning they passed the quarter of a billion sales mark for iOS devices.
10:21 a.m. Consumers don’t want tablets, they want iPads, Tim quotes from AllThingsD.
10:20 a.m. 92% of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying iPad. This is in less than 18 months, which is unheard of. “iPad is the undisputed top selling tablet in the world,” Tim says. “Despite everybody and their brother trying to compete with iPad, 3 out 4 tablets in the US are iPads.”
10:20 a.m. Over 80 percent of top hospitals in U.S. are now testing or piloting iPad.
10:18 a.m. Next up, the iPad. People have been thrilled with both the original iPad, and the iPad 2, he says. 95% satisfaction score in their most recent survey. And iPads are showing up everywhere: in schools (cute picture of a girl in a science lab holding an iPad). Almost a thousand K-12 schools have a 1:1 program so a child can enjoy an iPad for an entire day. Almost all school districts have an iPad program. iPads are in universities, flight cockpits. It makes the pilot and plane more efficient (fuel efficiency).
10:17 a.m. The iPhone has 5 percent share of the worldwide mobile phone market. That’s one in 20 people, worldwide. The market is 1.5 billion units annually.
10:15 a.m. The iPhone 4 makes up over half of the total iPhones sold since the iPhone was first introduced. It’s become the number one smartphone in the world. Year over year growth is at 125%
10:14 a.m. Now iTunes. It started with 200,000 songs, they’ve now got 20 million songs, or ten times that. It is the number one music store in the world. Over 16 billion songs have been downloaded from the iTunes store. Wow!
10:13 a.m. iPod is still a large and important product for Apple, Tim says. They’ve sold 45 million in the last year ending in June. Almost half of those are going to people buying their first iPod. “It remains a very important business for us.”
10:12 a.m. Next up, music: iTunes and iPod. It was only 10 years ago that the iPod launched, revolutionizing the way we listen to music, and the whole music industry. Tim says it also reminded us all that we love music, making music a more integral part of lives. iPod became the number one music player in the world, it’s market share has been above 70 percent for a long time. Apple has cumulatively sold over 300 million iPods around the world. It took Sony 30 years to sell 220,000 Walkman cassette players.
10:11 a.m. Apple’s Mac market share is now 23%, so nearly 1 out of every 4 computers sold in the US is a Mac.
10:10 a.m. The Mac has outgrown the PC market by almost 6 times in the past year. Every single quarter for 5 years the Mac has outgrown the PC market. They are now approaching 60 million users (58 million right now).
10:10 a.m. Macbook Air and iMac are #1 notebook and desktop in the U.S.
10:08 a.m. Tim is going to walk us through each of Apple’s major areas with an update. First is the Mac with OS X Lion — “It’s the best computer operating system out there,” Mossberg is quoted as saying. Results have been staggering: over 6 million downloads. This is 80% more than Snow Leopard.
10:07 a.m. Tim says Apple now has six stores in China, bringing Apple to 357 total stores in 11 countries.
10:05 a.m. The Hong Kong store offers a view of Victoria harbor. It has an even crazier glass staircase. They sold more Macs on opening day in this store than on any other store in the world, it was one of their best opening days in retail history.
10:04 a.m. Tim is showing us beautiful pics of the stores, one of a glass staircase. They welcomed 100,000 visitors their opening weekend.
10:04 a.m. A few updates: Just last weekend, Apple opened two new stores in China, one in Hong Kong and one in Shanghai.
10:04 a.m. — Today, Apple wants to remind us of the uniqueness of their company as they announce innovations of their mobile operating system, applications and hardware, and integrating them into a single experience.
10:02 a.m. — Tim Cook has taken the stage. This is his first product launch since being named CEO. He says it’s a pleasure to host us today, and he loves Apple. He says that this campus serves as a second home for many Apple employees. The room we’re in is called Town Hall. Nice pleasantries and introductory remarks.
9:56 a.m. — Apple seems to be a big fan of the classic rock.
9:50 a.m. — We’re in and seated, people are still getting settled. We’re listening to some classic Led Zeppelin.
9:32 a.m. — Sadly, the bathrooms are not as cool as I had hoped. Pretty standard, utilitarian. Top marks for cleanliness, however. Rating: A+
9:17 a.m. — An image of the MacBook Air graces one of the upstairs walls as art. Awesome.
9:11 a.m. — Quite the spread! Time for a mini-muffin.
9:06 a.m. — Oooh, fancy.
9:00 a.m. — Media check-in has begun! Apple sure is timely. Let’s get this thing started.
8:44 a.m. — Walt Mossberg from The Wall Street Journal just got here. And Lady Gaga?! Just kidding.
8:18 a.m. — We’re here! Waiting in line to register. We’re locked out of the Town Hall building until later this morning. We’re supposed to get a breakfast at 9. I wonder if it’ll be gourmet or continental style?
CUPERTINO, California — Rumors of Apple’s latest iPhone have reached epic heights over the past few months. Today — finally — they’ll be laid to rest, as the company announces what’s in store for its mobile products. We’ll be down at Apple HQ to deliver you the news as it happens. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates.
Read Wired.com’s previous coverage for a rundown of what we’ll hear about at the event. The keynote starts 10 a.m. PDT, and Wired.com will be live-blogging the event. Stay tuned on this post for the news, or follow @Wired for Twitter updates in 140 characters or less.
Photos: Christina Bonnington and Brian X. Chen/Wired.com
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