E-Commerce Times Examines iPod & Apple’s Competitors

September 30th, 2003 at 3:00 PM - News by Bryan Chaffin

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 Microsoftis WMA format. Part two focuses on the iPod, and the issues of price and features from Appleis 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 Editoris, Bryan Chaffin. From the article:

Chaffin said he is less than impressed by Dellis entrance into the portable jukebox market.

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

"Dellis 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. Thatis 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, Appleis iPod has almost singlehandedly changed the perception many people -- especially young people -- had of the company.

"Practically overnight, Apple went from being iwhateveri to icool,i" 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."

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