iPod most popular MP3 player

[rtgwbmsr]

http://www.macuser.co.uk/?news/news_story.php?id=40358

Something at Apple is selling very well...

 

quote: Apple iPod rings the cash registers
[MacUser] 13:13

Despite being more expensive than the majority of its competitors, the Apple iPod portable music player was the most popular MP3 player sold in the US in terms of dollar sales for the fourth quarter of 2002.

Apple's dollar market share reached 27 per cent compared with 10 per cent for second-ranked SONICBlue and its Rio players during the period, according to market research firm NPDTechworld. By units sold, Apple placed third with an 11.2 per market share, following closely behind Rio at 11.3%. RCA's lines of MP3 players were the best sellers with 13%.

The Windows version of the iPod accounted for 58% of the iPods sold, compared to 42% for the Mac version. Of the three iPod models, the 10Gb version is the best seller.

Apple's performance in the MP3 player market is impressive given that the iPod's are generally expensive compared to the competition. At US$299 for the 5GB model up to $499 for the 20GB version, Apple is competing in a space with both hard drive and non-hard drive products starting at $99.

Even more impressively for Apple, NPDTechworld's market share figures only account for sales made by third-party retailers, and so do not include iPods sold direct by Apple through its retail stores or online.

'The growth area in MP3 players is certainly the hard drive based models,' said NPDTechworld analyst Stephen Baker. 'You have to take your cap off to Apple for going into that higher-priced market and proving there was value there.'

Buyers of MP3 players are focused on value for money rather than simply the cheapest price, and that has helped Apple, according to Baker. He said that Apple's success in the market was also helped considerably by the company's decision to release a Windows version of the iPod last July. 'Apple's expansion into Windows showed that they saw a gaping hole and took advantage of it. They made a strong position for themselves,' he said.

Baker said that if Apple launches a 40GB iPod model, which industry insiders are predicting, it must keep the price below $500 to be successful . 'I don't think they want to move the top-of-the-line price points any higher than they are," Baker said. 'It would be tough to justify something priced higher than the 20Gb model, which is now at $499.'

[bling]

I dont see WHY people like iPods... 300$ is a lot to just listen to music. So what if it holds 20 gb, I dont even have 1 gb of music. Burning an MP3 CD (2 cents) which can hold 80 songs and buying a CD player (60 bucks) does it fine for me.

[Fett101]

Well duh! All the other HD mp3 players suck ass. The Nomad is big as hell, and the archos is the buggiest piece of crap I've had the horror to purchase. (no wait, that was Win 98. HAH)

[Pantso]

Well, the iPod is really slick and elegant if you ask me, that's why it sells like crazy!  

[trc3]

You can't see why people like the iPod?? Have you seen any of the other mp3 players?  Until recently they have all been complete crap. There are a few companys coming out with "ipod killers" but I still think the ipod is the best and easiest to use by far. And although you may have less then 1 gig of music I have over 10 gigs of music, actually I just filled up my ipod and had to delete some stuff.

[Faust]

until it can play ogg vorbis files i feel i would just be wasting a 20G hdd...
so I'll get one of the ogg compatible players shown on xiph and use it... 8-)
Even though it doesnt look sexy I dont want a player to look sexy - i want it to play music and play it *well.*

[Faust]

quote:so what if it holds 20 gb, I dont even have 1 gb of music.

i've got 30G atm... but he has a point how much of our personal MP3/OGG/(WMA? ha ha ha!) collections is made up of crap we dont like?  I could kill off 95% off my music collection and not care... too much pop in the world today...  

[bling]

My point was that MP3 format CDs can hold around 100 songs (around 300 mb). Now you could have around 10 of those and have a nice 3gb of music. Damn, thats 1000 songs, who has that? Do you honestly listen to ALL that music? There is, MAYBE, 5 or 6 bands that I actually listen to. I just dont see how it warrants 400 dollars, so what if its stylish.

[ April 02, 2003: Message edited by: Windows XP Hater #2874586 ]

[Calum]

? all my mp3 CDs contain 650Mb of music, and i frequently find i get bored of the stuff i have. a CD only contains maybe 10 to 15 hours of music even squished up into mp3s, but it's all relative, i have  a good few hundred 12" lps, and another few hundred 7" singles too, not to mention the boxes of tapes i have...

sometimes you just need new music your whole life.

and yeah, portable mp3 players should get with it and start supporting ogg and flac. surely they would shift more units if they did?

[ April 02, 2003: Message edited by: Calum: crusader for peace & freedom ]

[KernelPanic]

Fuck that! [Excuse my french]

You want this

Oggy oggy oggy!

[Calum]

well as it happens, http://www.neurosaudio.com/support/GeneralFunctionsfaq.asp#a8 and http://www.neurosaudio.com/press/news_item.aspx?itemID=80 seem to suggest that both ogg and flac will be supported by neuros sometime in the future.

[KernelPanic]

If Sony added OGG support to their Net-MD software, I would consider buying one of them.

[rtgwbmsr]

Sony's players use really crappy windows software to  put music on the player.

I have over 3 GB of music according to iTunes right now (and it's all stuff that I listen to   :eek:   ). And when I get my hands on my sister's music collection, that might double. I've owned 3 MP3 CD players, and they all:
A) Had crappy navigation systems.
B) Broke within 2 months.
C) Had crappy backlights.
D) Had crappy battery lives.
E) Were big, bulky and ugly.

The iPods are great players. I'm waiting for the impending (hardware) update...the 5GB's have disappeared from the sales channel - usually means there is an update coming.

[ April 02, 2003: Message edited by: The Muffin Man ]

[mushrooomprince]

Yea i have almost a gig of music of stuff that i always listen to. When im on my comp there is always music.


And music is good.


But i can't wait for the new 10 gig iPods to come out because an iPod would be such an awesome thing to use as a storage medium. Even if you have a fast cd burner it takes a while and you cant fit 10 gigs on a cd.

[cocoamix]

I have 9 gigs of MP3s and that's considered a SMALL collection among my friends.