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iPod Claims 82% HD-Based Retail Market Share; 42% All Players (UPDATE)

iPod Claims 82% HD-Based Retail Market Share; 42% All Players (UPDATE)

by , 3:30 PM EDT, October 11th, 2004

Apple's iPod and iPod mini had a 82% market share among hard drive-based portable music players in the last year, according to August figures from market research firm NPG Group. For all types of portable music players, Apple market share was 41.9%, the company told The Mac Observer, Monday.

A published report from Bloomberg News on Monday mistakingly gave the impression the 82% share was for all players.

The figure are for the month of August and are for US retail stores only, excluding direct sales and other online sales. The numbers are calculated using a percentage of actual unit sales reported by major retailers, such as Apple's retail stores, together with consumers surveys of buying habits.

The 82% market share of hard drive-based players is up from 64% from a year ago and 33% from two years ago, NPD said.

Among hard drive-based players, Creative Technology placed far second with a 3.7% share, followed by Rio at 3.2%.

Among all portable music players - hard drive-based as well as flash-based - Apple was first with 41.9%, Rio in second with 10.0%, iRiver in third with 9.3%, and RCA in fourth with 9.0%.

Brad Gibson contributed to this article.

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:AFCdtLoeb Posts: 2533 Joined: 20 Jul 2004
Subject:

82%?! Holy mother of Pearl!!!!

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Bring on the 60 Gig

…my credit card is in hand and ready. Oh, and you can also bring on the lower capacity flash-based Apple players (iChips? microPods?), I'm sure there are legions waiting for those sub $100 players as well.

Question: how are they going to fit a click wheel on increasingly tiny players as well as a decent size screen?

Close Name:Guest
Subject: NPG Group claims iPods hold a 82% market share

Funny, that we're not seeing Reality Check's comments on this.

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

> Question: how are they going to fit a click wheel on increasingly tiny
> players as well as a decent size screen?

My guess:

Apple flash players won't be (much) smaller than Mini's, just thinner.

I bet market research shows that if something is smaller than a credit card, people start to lose them. Probably there is also a point of diminishing returns on usability (big fingers and all that).

Close Name:Guest
Subject: He's busy

Quote
Guest wrote:
Funny, that we're not seeing Reality Check's comments on this.


That's because he's out right now trying to buy up as many non-iPod players as he can, to single-handedly try and change the numbers.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Missing MP3 players built into phones, palm/pda, etc.

Do these numbers incldue video players? Phones that play MP3? Palms?

Name another hard drive based music player! Can't? That's because they're no comparison to the iPod.

Close Name:slinky259 Posts: 91 Joined: 24 Jun 2004
Subject:

Quote
Guest wrote:
Do these numbers incldue video players? Phones that play MP3? Palms?

Name another hard drive based music player! Can't? That's because they're no comparison to the iPod.


Umm... that Rio one... think it's called Karma or something... Creative Nomad Zen thing... dell jukebox... just off the top of my head.

not saying they are any competition - but people know they exist

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

Quote
Guest wrote:
Funny, that we're not seeing Reality Check's comments on this.


Yeah, I was hoping for some insightful comments from him as well.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Will your next MP3 player be a cell phone?

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5535370-1.html?tag=cnetfd.sd

Could this be the iPods undoing?

Maybe in about a year from now. Cell phones seem to be the more logical vector to assimilate these peripheral technologies like PDAs, cameras, etc.

And all the iPod fans shuddered at the thought.

Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3149 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Subject:

Nope.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Cell Phones?????

I'd be happy if they made a cell phone that worked like a phone, only a phone, and they can shove the rest of the "features" where the sun don't shine.

Close Name:Small White Car Posts: 1960 Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Subject: Re: Will your next MP3 player be a cell phone?

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5535370-1.html?tag=cnetfd.sd

Could this be the iPods undoing?

Maybe in about a year from now. Cell phones seem to be the more logical vector to assimilate these peripheral technologies like PDAs, cameras, etc.

And all the iPod fans shuddered at the thought.


Whoo! $500 cell phones! Yeah, those'll take right off!

If they cost any less than that their features will be much less appealing than the iPod's.

Close Name:AyaSofya Posts: 137 Joined: 11 May 2004
Subject: $500 cell phone, I bought one

"Whoo! $500 cell phones! Yeah, those'll take right off!"

I bought my wife one, a Treo 600, because she is deaf and could use it for email communication. The full keyboard makes it easier to compose messages, than trying to wrestle with the standard phone keypad found on most cell phones. With the cell phone feature we thought it a better deal than Blackberry. Actually the phone had a rebate at the time and the total cost was not much more than higher end cell phone.

However, this summer she had a cochlear implant, this unit bypasses her damaged inner ear and directly stimulates the audio nerve. She has regained over 50% of her hearing! http://www.cochlearamericas.com/

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

AyaSofya, nice to hear about the positive news concerning the wife.

oharag

Close Name:Biff Posts: 1479 Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Subject: Re: Will RC's next MP3 player be a cell phone?

Quote
Guest wrote:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5535370-1.html?tag=cnetfd.sd

Could this be the iPods undoing?

Maybe in about a year from now. Cell phones seem to be the more logical vector to assimilate these peripheral technologies like PDAs, cameras, etc.

And all the iPod fans shuddered at the thought.
Predictions of an iPod killer! All the others have been wrong but not this one! I mean come on could this guy be wrong?
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/col/hed_mi.jpg

I'll just wait for a nice top secret bluetooth accessory that will be out for 4G iPod.

Close Name:jimothy Posts: 612 Joined: 04 Jun 2004
Subject:

Quote
AyaSofya wrote:

However, this summer she had a cochlear implant, this unit bypasses her damaged inner ear and directly stimulates the audio nerve. She has regained over 50% of her hearing! http://www.cochlearamericas.com/


Best of luck to your wife! First thing I'd do for her after the operation--get her an iPod!

Close Name:Guest
Subject: iRiver

iRiver make *much* better hdd mp3 players than apple's ipod.

The iHP140 - a 40GB player, plays ogg vorbis files, builtin fm tuner, builtin recorder, mounts directly as usb mass storage... the benefits go on an on.

And when I bought my iRiver, it was about $200AU cheaper than the same sized iPod, unbelievable!

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Will APPLE bring Flash iPod?

I've read some blog and news that Apple is contacting one chipmaker, a competitor of current chipmaker.
And Apple is ready to introduce flas memory player by the end of this year.
Could it be true?

Close Name:Suffolkmina Posts: 2 Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Subject: Will Apple bring Flash iPod?

I've heard the same thing.
That'll cannivalize iPod, mini, and photo.

Close Name:Mace Posts: 9604 Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Subject:

Flash based iPod will not cannabilize the other iPod because those going for flash based are casual buyers who do not buy much songs. Whereas those who have bought iPod tend to own/buy many songs. They are two separate market segment.

The market share figures are confusing me. SJ reported during the last quarter results that iPod has 92% of hdd based and 65% of all music players. Why this article said is 82% and 42%, are those figures for the whole year and SJ is talking about Q4 04 quarter only?

Close Name:Suffolkmina Posts: 2 Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Subject:

I guess the MP3 market is just started market, so that there isn't much information that we can really rely on.
Even when we can get projections about the whole MP3 market, we can't get trustful data for all kinds...
Now, we can listen to MP3 music on our cell phone, and some cell phone mfrs have come up with HDD and memory card slot on cell phones. If we get long-life batteries for our cell phone, we no longer need MP3 player unless we need to store some data.

Close Name:Mace Posts: 9604 Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Subject:

Quote
Suffolkmina wrote:
... Now, we can listen to MP3 music on our cell phone, and some cell phone mfrs have come up with HDD and memory card slot on cell phones. If we get long-life batteries for our cell phone, we no longer need MP3 player unless we need to store some data.
You have forgotten that there are guys like me who don't carry cell phone. Electronic gadgets are now a fashion/status symbol just like jewelry not another functional device.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: It's surprising to see

I can't believe apple has so many market shares

Close Name:Guest
Subject: full market share

ahhhh help I'm doing research for my marketing course. Where can i find all the market share levels for mp3 players?!?

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