E-Commerce Times Examines iPod & Apple's Competitors

by , 1:00 PM EDT, October 1st, 2003

E-Commerce Times has published the second part of its examination of the music download and digital music player markets, as they pertain to Apple. Part one of the series was published yesterday, and looked at the challenges that faced Apple in the digital download space in the face of competition from hordes of competitors using Microsoft's WMA format. Part two focuses on the iPod, and the issues of price and features from Apple's competition in that market. This is practically a vanity article for us, mainly because we are going to quote the section that in turn quotes this author, TMO Editor's, Bryan Chaffin. From the article:

Chaffin said he is less than impressed by Dell's entrance into the portable jukebox market.

"Dell is the Oster of the computing industry," he said. "The company's new 'consumer electronics initiatives' are a prime example of that. [It] is rebranding a third-party music service and a third-party MP3 player. It's nothing new, nothing original and nothing that Dell can really claim as its own.

"Dell's R&D is focused only on finding ways of making computers cheaper, not in developing new technologies or even finding new applications for existing technologies," Chaffin added. "The company makes toasters. That's something that Wall Street loves, but consumers are paying the price in the form of stagnant features and technology , at least on the Wintel side of things."

In contrast, he said, Apple's iPod has almost singlehandedly changed the perception many people -- especially young people -- had of the company.

"Practically overnight, Apple went from being 'whatever' to 'cool,'" he noted. "That too is changing perceptions about the company in a broader context, especially [in conjunction] with the intensely negative coverage of Microsoft in the mainstream media."

There's a lot more in the full article at E-Commerce Times, and we recommend it as a good read.

The Mac Observer Spin:

How's that for a rip-roaring quote? It's a good thing that someone is calling it like it is...

Seriously, though, the article looks at such very important issues as how low should Apple go in pricing, the dominance Apple has in this market, and the fact that the iPod is just a better all-around player than everything else out there. It's great to have that message out there in a mainstream publication.

E-Commerce Times Article