“Just how do you translate ‘iPod’ into Chinese or Hindi? That may be the question that Apple Computer is pondering as it looks to expand sales of its popular digital music player. Its position in the U.S. dominant, but that means iPod sales growth is tied to the growth of the market here,” Troy Wolverton writes for TheStreet.com. “Outside the U.S., though, the company owns just a small portion of the game. With the growth of that market expected to outpace the domestic arena, Apple could continue to post outsized sales growth for years to come — depending on how well it convinces overseas consumers that the iPod is as hip to have in China or India as it is in the U.S.”
Here, the iPod has been a runaway success. Last year, nearly 73% of the digital music players sold at retail in the U.S. were iPods, according to NPD, up from 56% in 2004. The company’s nearest competitor last year, SanDisk, held just 7% of the market,” Wolverton reports. “But success outside the U.S. has been limited. Research firm iSuppli, for instance, estimates that Apple’s share of the worldwide market for digital music players, in terms of units shipped, was 24.9% last year… [Apple] is already pushing the iPod overseas. For instance, the company has set up country-specific versions of its iTunes music store — which works hand-in-hand with the iPod — for Japan and more than a dozen countries and areas in Europe and Latin America.”
“Of particular note is the company’s record in Japan, where, despite intense competition from hometown electronics giants such as Sony and Matushita, Apple’s market share jumped to 51.3% of the market last year from 32% the year before, according to data from research firm BCN,” Wolverton reports. “But there’s no guarantee the iPod will become as dominant overseas as it is here in the U.S.”
Full article here.
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Wat iz iPod?
it doesn’t matter what you call ‘ipod’ by foreign language. the matter is that Apple still need to expand itunes music store service throughout worldwide. look. does China has that service? does Korea has? Twain? India? NOOOO. as far as Apple limit distribution service, sale of ipod will not increase. just think. why ipod sale is so amazing. it’s not beause ipod itself but itunes service. you remember it better.
by the way English is NOT KING. it’s only in U.S. or U.K. most countries when you take a trip, using English is very limited. Italy, french, argentina, china, japan, Korea, spain, germany, etc. English ius just used more common. How do I know? I take a business trip a lot overseas. I got hell of situation because of communication problem that you never know.
Freeze: “Almost everybody in the whole WORLD under the age of 70 has a computer now”
It was pointed out before, but -WOW- what blooper error in ignorance there. What world are you talking about? Upper middle class suburbia in the USA?
And it takes a high speed internet hook up to download music and videos for the iPod, Very few in the world have that. Or a bank account. OR A CREDIT CARD.
Some other facts to think about:
70% of the 1.2 bn people living in poverty are women and children.
85m girls worldwide are unable to attend school, compared with 45m boys. In Chad, just 4% of girls go to school.
700,000,000 women are without adequate food, water, sanitation, health care or education (compared with 400,000,000 men).
A baby girl born in the UK is likely to live to 81 – but if she is born in Swaziland, she is likely to die at 39.
But they all got computers – right Freeze!
Gosh MacDude, that is so funny.
“You want to get laid? Fill iPods up with music and loan them to girls.”
Is that what you yanks have to do to get expansions there? Heck you should travel more, some places all you have to do to get laid is say yes when she asks you.
Hey, does your iPod have that old Guess Who song…goes like this
“American woman, now stay away…”
Good advice, you won’t see your iPod back but I am sure she will be listening to it while screwing the guy who is driving her around in his BMW.
“American woman, don’t come knocking on my door…”
French:
le jePod
Chinese:
i-chingPod
Russian:
iPodski
Polish:
iPodavich
I’m sitting in Shanghai, right now. I was at the Carrefour mall in Gubei yesterday. It has an iPod store. Small, with an iMac G5, a CRT iMac, a G4 Mini, and loads of iPod peripherals. I asked about new Intel Macs, and they didn’t have any. I asked how many iPod stores there were, and they said, “lots”. No sales made in the 5mins I was there, but there were browsers, and someone was using the G5.
I’ve seen a giant billboard on the main N-S thoroughfare here. I’ve seen buses with iPod advertising, and I’ve seen 3 pod people, but I haven’t been looking.
Shanghainese are very fashion conscious, and the iPod suits them. The competition is cellphones that play music.
lofabred,
good point.
iPods ARE Chinese.
I saw quite a bit of iPods advertising while I lived in Shanghai for almost two years. The subway pillars had the sillouette (sp?) ads plastered on them. Kinda hard to find Apple centers, but all of the high end electronics vendors have them for sale. The “hush, hush. wink wink” situation in China is that piracy is actually the NORM. So, iTMS is going to have a HARD time setting up shop there. You could buy a whole album on CD that looks identical to the real deal for 99 cents. Import tarrifs make it even MORE expensive than in America, so it’s a luxury item 99% of Chinese can’t afford.
If I were Apple I would probably open up a massive technical support centre in Bangalore and hire about 3,000 native Hindi speakers. With so many iPods being sold in India this would have to be first on the list.