Apple maintains dominance with iPod
updated 12:10 pm EDT, Thu August 17, 2006
iPod maintains dominance
Apple continues to lead the U.S. digital music player market in the second quarter of 2006 with 75.6 percent share, according to a recent study by the NPD Group. "Apple has done a great job of focusing consumers' attention on digital music in their products through millions of dollars in advertising," said Ross Rubin, an NPD analyst. Mobile phone companies may eat away at Apple's sizable lead, however, as they continue to unveil new phones with built-in music playing capability, according to ITworld.com. SanDisk achieved 9.7 percent market share taking second place below Apple, while Creative holds third place with 4.3 percent of the digital music player market. Samsung obtained 2.5 percent of the market, and Sony managed to take 1.9 percent.
Ha!
08/17, 01:50pm reply
Boy, Creative's $100M marketing blitz really paid off. Forget about beating the iPod, they can't even beat "other"! :-)
phillymjs
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2000
Should Cell Phones Count?
08/17, 02:04pm reply
If all cell phones eventually come with built-in MP3 players, as they now do with cameras, does this really count as iPod competition? Not everyone will use the music feature, or even know how to get songs onto their phones.
edac2
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2006
Why try?
08/17, 02:47pm reply
The dumb argument of "the ipod doesn't have FM tuner, FM recorder, etc".... is one reason I think it does so well..... if you put too many features into something, it becomes less user friendly. I've tried playing with the "other" brand mp3 players, and it's nuts trying to get through all the "features"... I like it simple..... an MP3 player that play mp3's, what a concept.
MichaelNH
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2002
Yeah...
08/17, 07:32pm reply
It's clearly the lack of an FM tuner that has made the iPod such a resounding success. The design, UI, integration with iTunes, size, and price points are all secondary to that missing tuner.
PookJP
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
fm tuner...
08/17, 07:59pm reply
um, well, apple DID capitulate somewhat to that crowd by releasing their own fm tuner. wasn't that at a macworld expo? or paris? maybe last year's wwdc? either way, steve demo'd it on stage so it was one of those three.
rok
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 1999
Yeah, so much for people
08/17, 08:23pm reply
loosing interest in the iPod like so many tech pundits predict. The demand seems consistent to me...
mgpalma
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2000
FM tuner.... exactly...
08/17, 10:52pm reply
Yes they released the external tuner to make people happy. I would imagine that if they sold 1 or 2 FM tuners for every 4 iPod's sold, it could be a sign that people want it built it... but I'm doubting those odds... so a good way to test for demand I suppose.
MichaelNH
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2002
Improvement or not?
08/20, 10:56am reply
The one big question I have which wasn't answered by the article is:
Is this a greater or lesser market share than the last recorded sales figures?
rubaiyat
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Feb 2006
An important point
08/21, 02:39pm reply
An iPod purchase almost certainly signifies that the customer intends to use the device for music playback. A customer purchasing a cell phone that has MP3 playback abilities does not indicate any such thing, as the primary use of the device is overwhelmingly not related to listening to music and may never be used for such functions.
DoctorGonzo
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Oct 1999