Apple, iPod dominates Sony in Japan
updated 03:45 pm EST, Wed December 21, 2005
2005-Year of iPod in Japan
Apple's iPod is an overwhelming success in Japan. The company has a roughly 60 percent marketshare--as of the middle of November--in the country, or about six times that of its archrival Sony. A column in the The Daily Yomiuri calls 2005 the ; however, despite the success of the iPod and iTunes Japan, music sales continue to fall: "While iTunes and the iPod captured the public's imagination, overall music sales kept falling this year. In the first 11 months of 2005, shipments of audio software by the Recording Industry Association of Japan's 41 member companies totaled 278.4 million units, down 2 percent compared with the corresponding period of 2004, for a value of 330 billion yen, down 3 percent....And just one single, the aforementioned "Seishun Amigo," managed to sell more than a million copies, in contrast to the late '90s, when at least 10 singles sold that amount each year."
Missing LINUX
12/21, 04:36pm reply
i would speculate that the lack of sales has to be assosiated with the missing LINUX support in itunes and ipod, linux is much more popular in Japan then in the States and is quickly becoming the major OS used there iTunes for linux solution
lion610
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Joined: Dec 2005
LOL
12/21, 05:26pm reply
People need to stop trying to correlate data where they don't have all the variables.
porieux
Baninated
Joined: Mar 2001
lion610
12/21, 05:35pm reply
I don't understand how you are getting that Apple is lacking in sales. The later half of the article is talking about overall music sales in Japan not iTMS, etc.
shawnce
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Joined: Nov 2000
Music sales...
12/21, 05:40pm reply
...overall are down possibly because more video rental stores are carrying more audio cd's for rental. Why buy a cd for ¥2,500 when you can rent it for ¥300 and rip it on your computer? I've done it quite a few times, and it's legal.
mymacluvsme
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Joined: Aug 2004
no suprise
12/21, 07:56pm reply
this is no suprise. In tokyo the Apple store in Tokyo(ginza) is very crowded on the weekends.....completely busy...]
sysco
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Joined: Dec 2005
porieux is right
12/21, 08:10pm reply
Why add the fact that music sales are down over all in Japan when you are writing an article about the success and popularity of the iPod and the iTunes music store?
Both are true statements but not directly tied together. Music sales are down worldwide as compared to 5 years ago...so what? We know that the iTunes music store has not been open that long in Japan so there is no data to crunch there.
bigpoppa206
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Joined: Jun 2003
well...
12/21, 08:12pm reply
> Why buy a cd for ¥2,500 when you can rent it > for ¥300 and rip it on your computer? I've > done it quite a few times, and it's legal.
Renting a CD does not give you the right to make your own copy...what are you smoking?
bigpoppa206
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Joined: Jun 2003
Used CD's
12/22, 02:17am reply
This market in Japan is possibly also having an effect.
On my last visit to some shops in Akiba, I was able to find a bunch of used singles for Y100-Y300 and used albums for Y900-Y1500. The turnaround time for new releases finding its way into the used section is also decreasing making for some really nice bargains.
Senbei
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Joined: Feb 2004