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In spite of Microsoft’s launch of Zune, and a host of other less publicized imitators, Apple, and their iPod/iTunes empire, shows no signs of slowing down. According to Hitwise, visits to iTunes on Christmas Day were 413 percent ahead of the previous Christmas. Sales for their iTunes e-commerce site on Christmas Monday were 1222 percent ahead of the previous Monday. Guess what people got for Christmas?

Sales to Apple’s online store were up 110 percent Christmas Day 2006 over Christmas Day 2005. Hitwise reported that visits to the iTunes site “outnumbered visits to Zune.net by 30 to 1.”

Also, according to a story at MercuryNews, Apple’s market share of MP3 player sales for the five-week Christmas period rose from 42 percent last year to over 57 percent this year.

Figures aren’t in for Apple’s 150 retail stores, but it seems safe to assume that the increase in online traffic also drove sales in their retail outlets.

The only downside to this incredible online success is that it temporarily crashed Apple’s servers after Christmas. That shouldn’t happen to a company as Web-savvy as Apple.

Figures like this should provide good momentum going into Apple’s 30th Anniversary Celebration and new product announcements next week at the MacWorld Conference and Expo.