By Susan B. Shor MacNewsWorld Part of the ECT News Network
10/14/05 9:45 AM PT
"The MP3 market player side is really Apple and the other guys," Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director for Jupiter Media, told MacNewsWorld. "Apple has continually refreshed its product line, form factor and features and continues to put pressure on competitors."
The shine is still on the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) in the portable music player market, analysts say, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.
The Silicon Valley darling's unveiling of a video capable iPod only enhances the company's dominance in a worldwide portable music market that IDC predicts will grow more than fivefold to 124 million units sold by 2009.
"The MP3 market player side is really Apple and the other guys," Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director for Jupiter Media, told MacNewsWorld. "Apple has continually refreshed its product line, form factor and features and continues to put pressure on competitors."
Ahead of the Curve
Innovation and brand cache will keep Apple ahead of the pack in this market, he said.
"Clearly these guys are thinking ahead. As companies were trying to put out a competitor to the iPod mini, Apple was ready to kill the mini and introduce the nano," Gartenberg said. "People have been talking about a dramatic shift in the market since Apple introduced the iPod. There are other products out there technically as capable, but they haven't captured the hearts and minds of consumers."
IDC divides the "compressed audio market" into four segments: portable, home, automotive and other, which encompasses devices that can play and store music as a secondary function. It is the "other" category that IDC believes will dominate the segment, reaching sales of more than 700 million devices by 2009.
Watch This
The unveiling Wednesday of its video iPod puts Apple out in front again. The new iPods will have a 2.5 inch color screen and have battery power to play about three hours worth of video. Apple will release a 30 GB version for US$299 and a 60 GB version for $399. Both black and white versions of the devices will be available.
"Apple has done something really smart," Gartenberg said. "They didn't mess with the form factor, but added legal premium content at a reasonable cost."
The video downloads will cost $1.99 apiece.
IDC said video will be a key to growing demand for portable flash players and hard drive-based portable jukeboxes. That only serves to boost Apple and its iTunes download service even more.
"This feature is expected to be complemented by music video downloads from paid online media services," the analyst firm forecast.
Smartphone Shipments Post Triple-Digit Increases September 30, 2005
Canalys estimates that just under 80 percent of the smartphones shipped in EMEA in the first half of 2005 were Series 60, keypad-based handsets, with Nokia's keyboard-oriented Series 80 models accounting for another 13 percent.
Related Stories
Related News Alerts
More by Susan B. Shor
Salesnet President Jonathan Tang Ready to Take On Salesforce.com February 07, 2006
"We think it's Salesnet's time now. We've been around since the beginning, we've been lying low, but you're going to start to see more of us. We've done it through organic growth and happy customers. We continue to focus on customers."
Comcast Follows Time Warner in Offering 'Family' Programming Tier December 23, 2005
"The demand for this type of tier is coming from the FCC and Christian conservatives. It has nothing to do with legitimate consumer demand," Todd Chanko, senior analyst at Jupiter Media, told the E-Commerce Times.
High-Risk Flaw Found in Symantec's Software December 22, 2005
"Part of the significance of this vulnerability announcement is that your machine can be exploited without you needing to do anything at all. You don't even have to open an e-mail or attachment, and this happens with the default configuration of the product," said Forrester Research senior analyst Michael Gavin.
Headline Feeds
Talkback: 
