iPod US marketshare rises to 82 percent

neville

After clothes, money and a car, an iPod is what US teenagers want most this holiday season. A survey of 600 high school students by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster found Apple‘s digital player No. 4 on their wish list. And the iPod wasn’t even among the items Munster suggested – the kids wrote it in.

“It was really surprising,” said Munster in an interview from his office in Minneapolis, USA. “They didn’t say music player. They said iPod. Teens want to be cool, they want their music, and the iPod is a cool way for them to get their music.”

The iPod had an 82% share of the market in US retail stores in the 12 months ended in August, up from 64% in the same period a year earlier, and 33% two years ago, according to NPD Group, a firm that provides sales and marketing information for a broad range of industries.

Sales of players that use computer hard disks as storage, like the iPod, will increase in the US almost fivefold to 10.4 million units this year from 2.1 million in 2003, according to In-Stat/MDR, a market research firm. Devices that play MP3 digital music files will surge to 52.4 million units by 2007, up from about 18 million this year, the firm said.

Bloomberg | Apple’s Jobs Taps Teen IPod Demand to Fuel Sales, Stock Surge

(Via Neowin)

3 thoughts on “iPod US marketshare rises to 82 percent”

  1. The power of Apple marketing. I have an iPod. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that it’s full of flaws — flaws I didn’t have in my previous MP3 player. The only drawback to my ancient Personal Jukebox is that it’s the size of a paperback novel. It predates the iPod by a couple years. Oh, and the fact that I drop it and it broke. But the iPod requires you to store your music on your computer hard drive (the PJB didn’t; you recorded direct to the device); you had to manage your library on your PC (not on the PJB); the iPod still gives you an annoying break between tracks, particularly irksome when listening to classical music or rock concerts (not a problem on the PJB); and if I stop listening to a book on tape in the middle, listen to something else, then go back to the book on tape, it starts at the beginning and I have to spend a fair amount of time trying to figure out where I left off (not on the PJB). But when the marketplace gushes over a product, it’s hard for complaints to see the light o’ day.
    The makers of the PJB have come out with a new iPod-sized device that stores 80 GB (that’s 20 more than the rumored new iPod) and has all the features of the old PJB. It appears as another drive on the PC and features FM radio and a digital voice recorder. And given Apple’s marketing strength, the RipDrive probably doesn’t stand a chance. Form over function. Ah, well.

  2. Shel, I’ve not seen those comments in any iPod reviews, so glad (if you get what I mean) to learn of your experiences.
    While iPods may be the coolness du jour, there are increasing numbers of other disgital players on the market.
    But arguing against an 82% current market share is no small feat, no matter how good your alternative is.

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