The maker of iPods, iPhones and Macs grew its online traffic 18 percent compared to a year earlier, from a monthly average of 36.6 million unique visitors to 43 million, according to Nielsen Online. Total minutes at the site grew 22 percent, from 7 billion in calendar Q3 2006 to 8.6 billion in calendar Q3 2007.

Nielsen also said that in September, Apple’s online traffic ranked number one in its category, hardware manufacturers.

iTunes, the Apple Store and .Mac were the fastest-growing online channels for Apple – which is good for the company, because those are the places where money is made.

   Table 1: Fastest Growing Apple Web Channels, Q3* Year over Year (U.S., Home and



 Work)



  +----------------------+----------+----------+-------------+



 | Apple Computer       | Q3 2006  | Q3 2007  |   Q3-Q3 %   |



 | Channels             | UA (000) | UA (000) |   Growth    |



 +----------------------+----------+----------+-------------+



 | iTunes               |  22,644  |  30,738  |     36%     |



 | Apple Store          |  3,346   |  4,375   |     31%     |



 | .mac                 |  3,525   |  3,995   |     13%     |



 +----------------------+----------+----------+-------------+



 Source: Nielsen Online, October 2007



 *Quarterly Web traffic based on a three month average monthly unique audience.

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