 That gear, produced by a network of independent companies that came to be known as "The iPod Ecosystem", by 2006 generated more than $1 billion in annual sales.In the 2007 fiscal year, the iPod generated $8.3 billion in revenue, or about a third of Apple's sales.In October 2005, Apple announced that Rubinstein would be retiring on March 31, 2006, and he was succeeded as iPod chief by Tony Fadell.