“Apple sold ten times as many tracks in the US as its most established future rival in Europe, OD2, sold in 2003,” MacWorld UK reports.
“The Mac-maker shifted 30 million songs in the US, while OD2 has shifted just three million songs in Windows Media format across the multiple operators that use its service in Europe last year… He added that the volume of European music downloads is growing 25 per cent month-on-month. Apple is expected to launch its own music download service in Europe in the second quarter,’ MacWorld UK reports.
Full article here.
So with no competition whatsoever, the WMA-based services are still relative failures. Doesn’t 3 million by them for a larger market than the US vs 30 million for iTunes (with competition mind you) say enough?
OD2 isn’t going to set the world on fire. Everyone who is likely to buy online music downloads in Europe is holding out for iTMS and Napster.
Plus, I really think the iPod has a lot to do with it. People want it. Therefore…iTunes and AAC/Fairplay files may surpass the rival due to iPod sales. The iPod product is like a pair of Levi jeans. It’s a western product and it’s all the rage. I remember living in Europe a couple of years ago…and Levis were a big must have item.
Dave, I think you should erase Napster from your sentence
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> Napster doesn’t seem to be doing extraordinarily well in the US.
Actually, it’s not a geographic issue per se.
iTMS appeals solely to MacOS X (>10.2) and new generation (i.e. Win2K/WinXP) based Windows clients, solely in the USA. Neither of these could be said to represent a majority of the marketplace, which is made even worse by the fact that you really need a broadband connection which is still not available on a ubiquitous basis in the USA.
OD2 and its affiliates are aimed at any Wintel platform running Windows Media Player 9 (which I seem to recall is Win98 onwards) within a continent where broadband is far more pervasive, and the overall population is far greater.
Whilst the shallow interpretation of this data is that iTMS is 10 times as successful as OD2, the reality is that – if you adjusted the data for the size of market opportunity – iTMS is probably 50-100 times more successful than OD2.
If you look at the data from that perspective, is it any wonder than that the WMA community, including Microsoft and its quizling mouthpieces (Thurrott, Enderle, etc.) try to spread FUD about iTMS, iPod and iTunes. I almost can’t wait for a global iTMS just to watch OD2, Loudeye, MusicNow, etc. implode as Apple dominates the market with 98% market share.
Calling Dave Fester for another searing insight into how we should really interpret these numbers.
Everybody is waiting for iTMS Europe. Everybody knows about iTMS it’s all over the continent. All media talks about it. Everybody knows that other services are crap.
Steve get on with it!
How does this sound Ed?
“OD2 isn’t going to set the world on fire. Everyone who is likely to buy online music downloads in Europe is holding out for iTMS and wants to laugh themselves silly at crappy old Napster.”
MCCFR: It almost makes you feel sorry for the quizling mouthpieces, doesn’t it? Perhaps there is a Smeagol buried in each of those Golums, if only they weren’t tortured by the evil ring.
KL:
I wish I could feel sorry for them, but I suspect that – as they’re possibly up to their eyes in MS stock (hence their complete lack of commitment to objective independence) – it’s not really required.
wasn’t Smeagol the name of one of the OS’s a few years ago?
I cant wait for the next generation iPod, this is what I want.
iPod 4G
—————————–
– AM/FM Tuner
– Voice Recording
– Audio Recording
– WIFI-Syn
– Dock
– remote
– new transulent case with beltclip
– USB2/Firewire cabel
– Battery +12h
– 2,5 ” Color-Display
– Video-playback (for music-videos which are sold on the iTunes music store for 1,99 incl. the song as a seperat file)
– Media-card Reader (for storing pictures from all major digicams)
– normal + in-ear headphones
– armband
– 40/60/80 GB
– 299, 399, 499 $/�
– white, black, aluminium
– iPod home
– 5 ounces
– 4,1 x 2,1 x 0,5
coming in august.
sorry for the bad english.
It’s possible to be a failure and still have a high market share…look at the XBox. Apple, drive the stake in the heart.
Ralph2, you forgot the death ray….. How could you make an oversight like that?
; )
I think it is not so far off. most of the features are available in other players, the color display is in every 100 $ phone, battery life of the dell device is 16 hours and selling video clips is the next logical step on the iTunes music store. so common apple, this cant be soooo difficult…
I meant “come on apple” (my english!)
Oh no, an iPod with a death ray….. “of course the death ray only has evil applications….. nnnnnheyhey…..”
And Rob Enderle, Paul Thurrott et al. will complain that the death ray isn’t WMA-compatible, and that the iPod 4G can only fire imaginary space weapons in a proprietary format.
…or they’ll attest that Microsoft DeathRay 2009 will be sooooo much better than Apple’s version. And the fact that it will be built-in to Bonghorn and will be un-installable will promote customer choice, of course.
Well M$/WMA is the DeathStar. We just stole the DeathRay from them and miniturized it.