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.