Ah, hubris: tragic flaws don't get much more classic than that. Oedipus had it a few thousand years ago, and Steve Jobs carries on the tradition nicely in these modern times-- of course, there's a matter of degree to be considered. Whereas Oedipus's fate for his arrogance was to kill his pops (whoops), marry his moms (uh-oh), and finally blind himself in a staggeringly messy though conveniently dramatic manner (owie), Steve tends to get off rather light. Sure, he was driven from his own company back in the '80s, but he's back now and everything's peachy... mostly. It's just that sometimes that darn hubris bites him in the hinder, like when he was so convinced that the G4 Cube would sell like gangbusters and it instead led to a stock drop from which the company still hasn't clawed its way back.

More recently, consider his pie-in-the-sky sales goal for the iTunes Music Store: 100 million songs in its first year online (up just slightly from the company's original target of 1 million songs in the first six months). And while he clearly stated that was a "goal" and not a "prediction," when the iTMS only sold 70 million songs in a year, the press was all over that action with headlines about how Apple had "drastically missed its forecast" and the like. If Steve hadn't upped the ante to a level somewhere about forty miles above the stratosphere, Apple wouldn't still be dogged by the media who continue to harp on iTMS sales coming in 30% under target and ignore the fact that it's totally demolishing every other music download service on this plane of existence. (It's also funny how few of the reports mention that the shortfall was due almost entirely to Pepsi's incompetent handling of that 100 million song giveaway, which, all told, only gave away about a twentieth of what it offered.)

So Apple's latest hubris-related PR ickiness is this perceived 30 million-song shortfall, but at least the company appears to be hard at work trying to smooth things over. Faithful viewer mrmgraphics noted the presence of yet another iTMS-related press release, this time crowing about how the store sold 3.3 million songs since its big third-generation update a week ago. Considering that prior to the update the iTMS was selling about 2.7 million songs per week, that's a nice, healthy boost, and one which might distract the press from that whole "70 million songs" debacle. After all, at 3.3 million songs a week, a 30 million song deficit translates into a mere nine-week delay, and that isn't too bad, right?

Oh, but wait, here come the objections from the peanut gallery: "Eh, them beans ain't so hot," as you so inexplicably phrase it, "because Apple's been giving away a free song each day for the past week, so no wonder iTMS downloads spiked by half a million songs." Well, you're partially right, there, Sparky: true, Apple did indeed give away free tracks by Annie Lennox, Courtney Love, and others during the week in question, and yes, that promotion did account for 500,000 downloads, but Apple clearly states that the 3.3 million songs do not include "Free Song of the Day" downloads. So there. Nyeeaaaahhhh.

So, good news, there: the iTMS sales rate continues to climb as Apple expands its catalog (it now offers over 700,000 songs at last count) and adds new and interesting features. (The press release also mentions that the new iMix feature has racked up 20,000 published playlists already. People have a lot of free time, don't they?) Of course, what with the hubris machine always cranking away 24-7, there's an ever-present chance that things could get sketchy again soon. Consider this quote: "'Our third generation iTunes Music Store just blows away any other online music service,' said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO."

Uh-oh... betcha the gods aren't gonna like that one much. While we would never go so far as to recommend that Steve spring for a full genealogical workup for his lovely life Laurene, we are suggesting that he steer clear of any golden brooches or similarly pointy jewelry, or at least wear safety goggles all the time. Better safe than sorry.

Speaking of the iTunes Music Store, we're sure that the non-U.S.-residing members of our viewing audience are probably bored and/or frustrated within centimeters of death by now, given the marked increase in the music-to-Mac drama ratio on AtAT in the past year. Remember, U.S. dwellers: as of yet Apple still hasn't gotten around to pushing the iTMS out there to our neighbors abroad, so all this stuff about iMixes and free songs and whatnot mean absolutely nothing to them. Sure, the iTMS is an Internet-based service, but it's like all that hippie talk about the "electronic global village" and "no borders on the Internet" came to zilch. Sadly, that's the state of things: the Internet may not recognize national borders, but lawyers certainly do. And music needs to be licensed.

So what's the holdup, already? Well, as far as we know, Apple has only publicly acknowledged working on two international markets for the iTMS so far: Europe and Canada. As far as Canada's concerned, until two weeks ago we really hadn't heard anything (other than a whole lot of incessant whining from the Great White North-- all that free health care must have made them go soft, or something) since the president of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency announced that licensing negotiations with Apple were "under way" and that Steve Jobs had told him that "Apple couldn't wait to come to Canada." That was, um, over six months ago, so evidently Steve could wait, at least a little while. Recently AppleInsider claimed that the CMRRA was "just as frustrated as you" about the iTMS's continued non-Canadianism, but reportedly negotiations with both the CMRRA and the record labels are now "in the final stages" and "we should expect news of their launch [in Canada] in the near future." Whatever that means.

As for the delay in Europe, well, that may be slightly juicier: faithful viewer frozen tundra pointed out an article in The Independent which reports that "music labels are dragging their feet" on the whole licensing process because "they fear [Apple's] long-promised European music download site will dominate the online business." The argument is that, if iTMS Europe captures 70% of the market the same way the U.S. version has done, Apple would have the power to "dictate which stars or records succeed or fail by deciding which to promote on its site." Wow. When was the last time Apple had to contend with people worried that it'd abuse its monopoly power? This am Bizarro World. "No iTMS Europe? Us am so happy!"

When all's said and done, though, we're sure that all parties will come around eventually and before too much longer, Americans, Canucks, and Europeans alike will all be downloading legal tunes together in the global spirit of peace and harmony. You know, kinda like when all those people joined hands in that old Coke commercial. And the utter stomping underfoot of MyCokeMusic.com will simply be an incidental irony, of course.

Hey, so have you been wondering what's happening with the education market and Apple's campaign to regain the ground it lost to Dell? Because we have. Not a lot, mind you-- it's not like the subject consumes our every waking thought and then bleeds unbidden into our dreams while we slumber. (At least, not every night.) But since the education tussle was so central to the Apple-Dell rivalry a few years back ("Dell is now number one in education"/"no you're not, Apple still is," etc.), it's something we like to check in on every once in a while.

The good news is that, during Apple's last quarterly earnings conference call, the company announced a 10% boost in unit sales and an 18% boost in revenues in the education market, which is a nice step up. There was a recent setback, however, when Apple's single biggest and highest-profile education sale stumbled on its path to growth. Surely you remember the state of Maine leasing over 38,000 iBooks to supply one to every single seventh- and eighth-grader living within its borders, right? Well, then you probably also recall the massive budget struggle that almost nixed the deal before it was finalized. Eventually smarter heads prevailed, the kids got their iBooks, the whole program was a rousing success that attracted visitors from schools all over the world, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Until, of course, Maine tried to extend its massively successful junior high iBook initiative into its high schools. On Tuesday the Associated Press reported that the Maine Legislature's education committee had decreed that the program "will not be expanded into high schools this fall," and "offered little hope that the governor's proposal... could be salvaged." How little hope? Well, as committee co-chair Glenn Cummings put it, "as it stands now, the expansion to the high schools is dead, at least for this coming fall." That sounds pretty final to us.

But don't pity the high school students going iBookless just yet; the Portland Press Herald reports that Apple and supporters of the plan are thinking differently about the matter. Since the problem, as usual, is funding, apparently "Apple, the laptop supplier, is willing to rent laptops to school districts and defer payments for a year," by which time the school systems will be receiving "$175 per student for technology" through something called "Essential Programs and Services" which kicks in when the 2005-2006 school year rolls around. So technically, schools could rent iBooks for their ninth-graders to continue their iBooking ways even without having the state funding available, which would then put pressure on the Maine legislature to approve the money next year. Pretty sneaky, sis.

Here's hoping this end-run around the legislature works, because becoming a freshman in high school is plenty traumatic enough without having one's iBook pried forcibly from one's sweaty, twitching fingers. Oh, won't somebody please think of the children?