For an emerging generation of Japanese innovators, the dream isn’t a job for life at a big company. They have new ambitions, and they’re determined to go places. Especially Silicon Valley.SAN FRANCISCO – Building on its dominance in the music industry, Apple on Wednesday updated its iPod media players and introduced a service that lets users rent shows and movies.
The company revamped its Apple TV set-top box to offer high-definition TV-program rentals for 99 cents, Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said at an event in San Francisco. The $99 device also will deliver first-run movie rentals for $4.99 and work with Netflix’s online service.
Apple, the largest technology company by market value, is parlaying its leadership in mobile applications and music sales to push deeper into video content and social networking.
To offer the TV rental service, it forged deals with ABC and Fox. The updated software and additional content also are part of Jobs’ strategy of getting consumers to buy more devices, including the iPhone and iPad.
“Apple realizes they need to be a bigger player in the living room,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos. in Minneapolis. “It’s a big enough space that there’s room for them.”
The new iTunes 10 adds a social network for music called Ping, which lets users “follow” others, Jobs said. The company also redesigned its entire line of iPods, including a $49 Shuffle with 15 hours of music play and a smaller iPod Nano with a touch pad.
The updated iPod Touch has a sharper screen, a front-facing camera, and features that allow video editing and face-to-face chats.
“It’s the biggest change in the iPod lineup ever,” Jobs said at the event.
Apple has sold more than 275 million iPods since the product’s debut in 2001, Jobs said. The device has helped drive the popularity of the iTunes Music Store.
The online system accounted for 28 percent of all U.S. music purchases and 70 percent of all digital sales in the first quarter, according to NPD Group Inc. in Port Washington, N.Y.
Apple has shipped more than 120 million products that run its iOS operating system, including the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, Jobs said. There are now more than 250,000 applications available for the devices.
Jobs said users are activating 230,000 iOS products daily, putting the operating system ahead of the pace of Google’s Android software.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in August that Android was gaining 200,000 new users a day, up from 100,000 two months earlier.
