Non-iPod media player sales are down

According to the NPD Group, during the first three weeks of the holiday shopping season, US sales of portable media players, with the exception of the Apple iPod, were down by a considerable margin.

For sales between November 18th and December 9th, dollar sales were down 16% compared to the same period last year while units sales dropped 9%.

NPD believes the declines are due to the fact that manufacturers faced a market with fewer first-time buyers. "The market is in a position where most of the people who want an MP3 player have one," NPD analyst Stephen Baker said.

Even the clear market leader, the iPod, was not selling the way it was in the past. "The iPod is not exactly a blistering growth segment," Baker said. "It's a good segment, and you'll still make money on it, but it's not growing 75% a year."

Revenues for media players have dropped in the recent past because more and more consumers are choosing to purchase cheaper, small capacity flash based players. "Most people don't have enough music and video files to justify paying more for a device with 80-plus gigabytes of storage," Baker added.

Source:
Yahoo

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Dec 2007 18:59

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12 comments

WierdName

It's like I say, Apple and their crapware has become a monopoly. Personally, I only consider their hardware as crap because of it being overpriced and always coming with the complementary fanboys.

Quote:Most people don't have enough music and video files to justify paying more for a device with 80-plus gigabytes of storage
Guess I'm not "most people..."

23.12.2007 21:26 #1

chaos_zzz

all this ipod stuff is lame. kid just get cuz they friends have another one.

This shows how a single company can mees up tyour mind so bad that you actually pay more for less (100% True there are better products fore less money)

I had only one ipod and i sold it i won't say what i havecuz then u'll say micoroft fanboy , sony fanboy, etc the ipod is *** and that's no comment can't change that

23.12.2007 22:46 #2

ZoSoIV

thats why the apple I-Pod introduced the 80 gig for the same price the 30 gig was sell for to boast sales. but everyone and there brother has one already. the 80 gig is a little over the top unless your putting alot on video on it

24.12.2007 04:36 #3

7thsinger

There's such a variety of MP3 players out right now and everyone has got one...at least one. I have a couple different ones. I don't have an Ipod, i found some things a little cheaper that play just fine. I'm not suprised to see the whole market for mp3 players down right now.

24.12.2007 10:38 #4

dragnandy

personally i dislike everything from ipod except for their macs, imac/macbook stuff.pretty much anti-ipod. well i guess id go for pc over mac anyday, but macs arent bad.

i think there are many other options better than the apple ipod. the only reason its big is because people who arent tech-freaks know its reliable because everyone has one, and because its advertised. i never see any ceative zen/vision commercials, sadisk sansas, archos, or any other ( well maybe zune).

25.12.2007 02:14 #5

ZoSoIV

now the newer I-Pods have a feature that if you're listening to it to loud it automatically turns it down lol

25.12.2007 02:29 #6

DVDBack23

Originally posted by dragnandy: people who arent tech-freaks know its reliable because everyone has one, and because its advertised. i never see any ceative zen/vision commercials, sadisk sansas, archos, or any other ( well maybe zune).Excellent comment...I own a Creative Vision M and the new iPod Touch and I must say that both are excellent in their own right. Have I ever seen a commercial for the Vision M however? Never. Do I see ads for the Touch? Daily.

25.12.2007 02:46 #7

borhan9

Quote:NPD believes the declines are due to the fact that manufacturers faced a market with fewer first-time buyers. "The market is in a position where most of the people who want an MP3 player have one," NPD analyst Stephen Baker said.Well if everyone has one they have to come up with newer ways in which to inticise existing and non users to purchase their products.

28.12.2007 19:10 #8

Nbj

the visual interface for the nano and touch are years ahead of all other players. The competition isnt even in the same league as apple and those numbers show it. How can someone say an ipod is crap? They obvisouly have poor taste and probably wear kmart clothing and eat kd for breakfast.

30.12.2007 14:18 #9

WierdName

Quote:Well if everyone has one they have to come up with newer ways in which to inticise existing and non users to purchase their products.Exactly. If everyone has one, they need to find ways to make the new product actually worth purchasing.

As for a general comment, for Christmas I got a new 80GB iPod Classic and it works great. However, I still stand by my previous assumption that it is very overpriced. After all, how many other companies would get away with charging hundreds of dollars (literally) for an MP3 with a click wheel and hard drive? Not many if any at all. They would go out of business because the people that would be in the know enough to find these players nowadays seem to want the brand name rather than price and quality. Since having it mine, I have also come to the assumption that it is very poor with file management. I am extremely annoyed in having to use iTunes to manage the music and video files on it. Sure there is sharepod, but it doesn't do video, as far as I know, and I think it messed with the file table database my sisters little 4GB mini. I think other companies could do quite well if they were to present the same products at a much cheaper price and advertised it.

30.12.2007 16:00 #10

hermes_vb

I have an ipod photo 60 GB and recently bought a Creative Zen 4GB. My ipod is basically my jukebox while my Zen is my fitness companion. Both are good, just different. One thing worth mentioning is that I really think the Zen kicks Nano's butt. It's cheaper an has other features the nanos lack like FM Tuner,Voice recording, SD Expansion Slot and a bigger screen. This specific model also plays DRM free AAC files which is perfect for me because my music library is 80% unprotected M4A files that I ripped myself.

31.12.2007 00:08 #11

Mez

Well, Apple is still playing the game the best. The cut prices at the right time enough to continue to kill the competition.

I second WierdName that some one needs to think up something new that is worth buying. Of course that takes more imagination than the world has these days. It is much easier to seal someone else's idea. Try to get people to buy another mp3 player will not make you rich but could make you poor. Prices will start to become sane in that market in the upcomming year. The market is near saturated.

31.12.2007 17:22 #12

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