“After clothes, money and a car, an iPod is what U.S. teenagers want most this holiday season. A survey of 600 high school students by Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster found Apple Computer Inc.’s digital player No. 4 on their wish list. And the iPod wasn’t even among the items Munster suggested — the kids wrote it in,’ Bloomberg reports.
“‘It was really surprising,’ said Munster in an interview from his office in Minneapolis. ‘They didn’t say music player. They said iPod. Teens want to be cool, they want their music, and the iPod is a cool way for them to get their music.’ Demand for the iPod, unveiled by Chief Executive Steve Jobs in October 2001, has helped make Apple the third-best performing stock in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index this year,” Bloomberg reports. “‘Style matters, simplicity matters, experience matters,’ Munster said. ‘That’s what Apple sells, and that’s what they’re doing different from everyone else.'”
Bloomberg reports., “The iPod had an 82 percent share of the market in U.S. retail stores in the 12 months ended in August, up from 64 percent in the same period a year earlier, and 33 percent two years ago, according to Port Washington, New York-based NPD Group Inc. Sales of players that use computer hard disks as storage, like the iPod, will increase almost fivefold to 10.4 million units this year from 2.1 million in 2003, according to In- Stat/MDR, a market researcher based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Devices that play MP3 digital music files will surge to 52.4 million units by 2007, up from about 18 million this year, In- Stat/MDR said.”
“Investors are betting that customers who bought an iPod, which range in price from $249 for the mini to $399 for a 40- gigabyte version, might also be more willing to spend $1,299 or more on the company’s latest iMac,” Bloomberg reports. “The iPod’s ‘halo effect’ will drive holiday sales of the iMac, Milunovich said. He estimates the company will ship 270,000 iMacs in the fiscal first quarter, a 19 percent jump from last year. ‘You get evangelists for Apple and the Macintosh growing,’ said Munster, whose enthusiasm for his own iPod led him to buy his first Apple PC two years ago. ‘All their core products get a tailwind for the next two years because the iPod is the avenue for customers to go to Apple stores and see other Apple products.'”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews article:
Mac market share primed to explode? If not now, when? – September 25, 2004
Amazing that it took them this long to figure it out.
not really, normal business people are always 2-4 years behind reality.
What’s amazing is that they caught on this quickly. Now what are wer going to switch to?
How many of the respondents for “digital music player” thought “iPod” but did not explicitly indicate or write in “iPod”?
It is very possible that the number of iPod enthusiasts is more than what Bloomberg.com has estimated.
I wonder how Creative, Rio, Dell, and Microsoft will be taking this.
Think they’ll demand a recount?? 😀
Winners innovate, losers imitate.
OMG, They are going to be evrywhere! Wait till the numbers come out after the Christmas buying season is over- if it’s as big as I think it will be Game, Set, Match.
Radio Shack
http://www.radioshack.com/search.asp?cookie_test=1&find=ipod&hp=search&image1;.x=31&image1;.y=24&SRC=1
Circuit City
http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/catOid/-12952/Ntk/All/Ntt/ipod/rpem/ccd/categorylist.do
Best Buy
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=cat12085&type=page&sc=ALL&qs=ipod&cp=1&sp=Relevance&mipp=25&uq=ipod&_requestid=18675
WalMart
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/search-ng.gsp?search_constraint=0&search_query=ipod&Continue;.x=18&Continue;.y=10&ics=20&ico=0
Sears
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/search.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&verticalFullName;=&keyword=ipod&gobutton;.x=18&gobutton;.y=11&displayTarget=searchresults
Target
http://www.target.com/gp/search.html/ref=/601-1383040-4926522?_encoding=UTF8&field-browse-brand=13020141&index=target&field-browse=1038598&field-keywords=ipod
CompUSA
http://www.compusa.com/products/products.asp?N=0&Ntt=ipod&Ntk=All&Nty=1&D=ipod
you get the idea.
This all hinges on Apple keeping up with demand… and we all know Apple’s track record on this.
As a Mac-lover and an iPod skeptic (when it was rumored & announced), I have to say it is the best this to happen to the platform since the original iMac G3.
We could not have hoped for more press than we get these days, and this is perfect timing for the release of the iMac G5, with huge performance and design upgrades (like it or not) from the previous model.
No matter how good Macs are, even huge transformations like OS 9 to OS X and G4 to G5, there is no way we would have this kind of growth without and “Trojan Horse” product. The iPod is the “gateway drug” for the Apple digital lifestyle that many of us have enjoyed for years.
Microsoft dominates with 99% and and..
Well they are just Pure evil
Prepare to get the mark of the beast at Microsoft.
Wow 82% that is so incredible. Apple could use some new switcher ads. Just please show off the OS and list some points. All the press coverage of Apple is so great.
While 82% is excellent, it would very wise to keep in mind that this does NOT reflect ALL sales. I don’t think that sales made over the internet are being counted. That means that Dell (and their three DJ’s sold) are not figured into the equation.
When Apple totes their numbers (including all channels of distribution) I’m confident that there will be an increase from the 58% last mentioned, but I think it will be less than the 82% currently stated.
So iPod internet sales made by Amazon, Apple an all the rest don’t count either? If Internet sales are not being counted, the iPod share is bound to be larger than 82% then
Hmm, 82% of the MP3 players. So, that’s 7 iPod syle players (if you include 5 minis and 2 reg) v. every other MP3 player out there. Talk about insane!
Let’s see how that looks when they introduce the iPod 60GB, iPod mini G2, and iPod ‘flash’ based players. ^_^ Can you say 90+ percent?
tyk, shut the fuck up
it’s easy to keep up with demand when you’re hawking a butt ugly dell yuckbox
Lets just hope Apple doesn’t screw this up and refuse to license it and make the iPod and FairPlay THE standard for players & DRM.
They’ve already refised to licnse Fairplay out at least once and eventually MS, Dell and everyone else will come up with something that’s “good enough” but lets people download DRM’d music from anywhere they want and Apple will end up a bit player in the market.
I really don’t want to see them screw themselves yet again by refusing to license and therefor become the standard but they seem to be pretty damned good at it
Watch, I bet M$ will start calling Apple a monopoly and force the iPod to accept WMA files.
M$ reason???
They had to allow Java on windows.
I thought it was interesting to look back at “As the Apple Turns” to see what the initial reaction was to the iPod.
http://www.appleturns.com/scene/?id=3349
In this scene from October 24, 2001, AtAT talks about a very mixed reaction to the original iPod, but they did write this gem:
“something tells us that the iPod may be Steve’s secret weapon to convert the masses.”
iPod Halo effect anyone?
Yeah, I got cash burning in my pocket just waiting for the Powerbook G5.
I saw the new 20 inch iMac last Saturday night. Great machine, great monitor !!!
BC
i’ve always liked the name iPod.. because it doesnt actually have anything to do with music…
which means it’s basically a storage medium that has a slick interface.. ..
82% share… god.. that means the guys at Redmond have a very unpopular proposition.. nasty looking toys that are compatible with clunky stores..
hard to believe.. MS’s digital media hopes now rest on…
…the Xbox?
iPod rules!
‘Style matters, simplicity matters, experience matters,’ Munster said
This sounds like the mantra of the new millennium in IT. Years ago Apple was already selling style, simplicity and experience but everyone was dismissing those as silly things in computing that were just making for pricey *toys* when work was done just the same on a $400 PC.
Seems someone is – slowly but steadily – realizing that work on a computer does not *have* to be a pain in the ass otherwise is not *real work*.
It can be enjoyable and it pays when it is so.
What it is amazing is that PC users had to go through iPod to understand that for computers.
I wonder when the electronics and financial press will start using the term ‘ Juggernaut’ as an adjective when referring to the iPod. You know what I mean, “blah, blah, the iPod Juggernaut blah, blah, blah…”
With an 82% market share in the U.S., it shouldn’t be much longer.
I’ve got a 40GB iPod now and I take it with me EVERYWHERE I go. I can’t wait for the G5 powerbook or the rumored new ipod. Either way, more money to Apple.