Apple Launches iTunes & Online Apple Stores in New Zealand News : Apple, posted 6-DEC-2006 07:54
Apple has launched the iTunes Store in New Zealand, and at the same time started operating the online Apple Store New Zealand.
The Apple Store will provide customers with Apple’s complete lineup of products, including the iPod digital music player, the Intel based Mac desktop and notebook computers, the iLife ‘06 suite of digital lifestyle applications, a vast assortment of iPod and Mac accessories from Apple and third parties and Mac OS X.
Customers can custom engrave any iPod through the online Apple Store, and can custom configure their Mac to suit their individual needs. The online Apple Store offers special education pricing to teachers and university and college students.
With a catalogue of over two million songs, the iTunes Store claims the title for the most music of any digital music store in New Zealand with songs priced at NZ$1.79, music videos at NZ$3.59 and most albums at NZ$17.99.
Exclusive music featured on iTunes includes tracks from New Zealand artists Fat Freddy’s Drop, Brooke Fraser, Tim Finn, The Datsuns and Bic Runga as well as extensive catalogues from New Zealand greats including Shihad, Crowded House, The Black Seeds, Breaks Co-Op, Elemeno P and Dei Hamo. International exclusives on iTunes include albums from The Doors, Faithless, Incubus, Foo Fighters, George Michael and more. The iTunes Store features iTunes Originals from international stars Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ben Harper, Black Eyed Peas and Jack Johnson.
The iTunes podcast directory currently features over 65,000 podcasts, including featured New Zealand podcasts from TVNZ, The Voice Booth and Radio NZ.
Additionally, Apple announced that the iPod nano RED Special Edition is now available in New Zealand, only at the new online Apple Store. The iPod nano RED, available in 4GB and 8GB models, comes in a red aluminum enclosure and features up to 24 hours of battery life, Apple’s Click Wheel and an thin and light design. Apple will contribute a portion of proceeds from the sale of each iPod nano RED to the Global Fund to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.
More information: http://www.apple.com/nz/itunes...
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Screenshot of Apple welcoming New Zealand to its online stores.
Apple Computers announced today that it's long awaited iTunes store is available to New Zealanders. They also launched the online Apple Store New Zealand which provides Apple products, such as iPods, Mac minis, etc. New Zealand is number 22 on the number of countries who have the iTunes store and the tenth music download store in New Zealand.

The launch means that New Zealanders can now download music to transfer to their iPods, legally. However the music is only available to iPod's as converting the music to the MP3 standard for other MP3 players is illegal in New Zealand. Some music download sites in New Zealand support MP3 formats, like Digirama which sell their music tracks for $1.75.

The New Zealand iTunes store provides the most digital music tracks in New Zealand at around two million and each song costs NZ$1.79 or a music video costs $3.59 of which there around thousands, an album will usually cost about $17.99 and a game will cost $7.99. The music tracks also include New Zealand artists such as Brooke Fraser, Tim Finn, Fat Freddy's Drop, etc and also includes international exclusive albums such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ben Harper, etc.

Eddy Cue, vice president of Apple, said: "We're thrilled to bring the iTunes Store and the online Apple Store to our customers in New Zealand just in time for the holidays."

There were rumours surrounding the launch of a New Zealand iTunes store this week.

The podcast section on iTunes also covers a wide range of podcasts, equalling over 65,000. The New Zealand podcasts include such companies as TVNZ (Television New Zealand), Radio New Zealand and The Voice Booth.

It is commonly believed that the reason the store was halted until now was because Apple has to make separate contracts with each recording company in each country.

iTunes is likely to become the dominant music download store in New Zealand, following the trend of other countries.

The special edition iPod nano has also been released in New Zealand. The special edition is red in colour instead of the normal white and black colours. The special iPod is available only on the online store at the same price as the normal iPod nanos but some of the profit goes to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Renaissance is New Zealand's distributor of Apple goods and will still keep its contract despite Renaissance not being directly involved in both of the new online stores. Renaissance said: "New Zealand will now come under Apple's worldwide pricing model."