Changing of the Guard – Gmail, iTunes

Two headlines in the past couple of days really caught my eye. Hard to believe.

First: Gmail. Thomas Claburn at Information Week reports that traffic on Gmail has increased 46% between July 2008 and July 2009. Gmail just overtook AOL as the third largest email provider, after number-one Yahoo Mail and number-two Hotmail. Er, Windows Live Hotmail. At the current rate of growth, Gmail will take over Hotmail in the next year.

Gmail’s torrid growth coincides with a period of aggressive innovation. Google has delivered new Gmail features and capabilities every week, more or less, since the opening of Gmail Labs in June last year.

Google has also been encouraging businesses to start using Google Apps, which includes Gmail as well as online applications like Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Sites, and Google Video.

The second notable statistic: according to a press release from market research company The NPD Group, iTunes now accounts for 25% of all music “units” sold in the US.

iTunes also continued to solidify its lead in the digital music arena, as consumer downloads from iTunes comprised 69 percent of the digital music market in the first half of 2009, followed by AmazonMP3 at 8 percent.

At the current rate of growth, downloads will outsell physical CDs by the end of 2010.

Amazing.