“SanDisk is the second largest manufacturer of MP3 players in the US, and Eric Bone, SanDisk’s director of consumer products marketing, said this is because customers get similar performance from their products for a lower price,” Manisha Kanetkar and Ty Pendlebury report for Smarthouse in an article headlined, “Sandisk Will Eat Into Apple.”
“SanDisk is the second largest manufacturer of MP3 players in the US, and Eric Bone, SanDisk’s director of consumer products marketing, said this is because customers get similar performance from their products for a lower price,” Kanetkar and Pendlebury report. “Sandisk’s feature set is also greater than the iPod’s, and includes voice recording, FM tuner and the ability to support a greater number of music subscription services, and it’s aimed at an aggressive price point of at least $20 USD under the equivalent Apple product.”
[Bone] also said that on a recent secret shopping trip to Harvey Norman staff had admitted to a high return rate on iPods: ‘Australians are blindly paying for iPods, but my experience showed that a lot are being returned due to a problem with formats on pre-recorded libraries and, in particular, problems with WMA [Windows Media Audio].'”
Full article here.
SanDisk’s rhetoric is ratcheting up, it seems. Too bad. In the past, they seemed more rational about their distant #2 status to Apple’s iPod (Apple has sold more than 50 million iPods. SanDisk has sold only about 1 million Sansas.) Why does SanDisk consider being tied to Microsoft’s failed WMA-based Windows-only also-ran online music outfits a selling point? It hasn’t worked for anyone else. Apple’s iTunes Music Store covers both Mac and Windows users – the vast majority of the market – and offers the largest legal library of music and videos. SanDisk should stop with the FUD and try maintaining and growing their distant #2 position to Apple in more constructive ways.
The bit about the included FM tuner”is so-tired-it’s-dead. Consumers do not care. Just look at the numbers. It’s a feature without a market. If you really want FM radio on your iPod, get Apple’s iPod FM Radio Remote.
SanDisk players are incompatible with, and will not (directly) play music, videos, or TV shows purchased from Apple’s iTunes Music Store. iTunes Music Store holds approximately 80% of the legal digital online music market and is now the #7 music retailer in the U.S. (Q3 05), up from #14 (Q3 04), ahead of Tower Records, Sam Goody, and Borders, according to NPD. (November 21, 2005)
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Related articles:
SanDisk CEO: Apple has ‘a closed, proprietary system’ – March 13, 2006
SanDisk exec on competing with iPod: ‘Apple has always been happy with 2-3 percent of the market’ – February 28, 2006
SanDisk quietly becomes distant No. 2 to Apple in U.S. digital music player sales – February 09, 2006
Apple’s vs. Microsoft’s music DRM: whose solution supports more users? – August 17, 2005
Maybe MDN should have a registration system – I can’t work out if MacDude has multiple personality disorder, is schizophrenic, a paranoid neurotic conspiracy theorist, or is simply multiple people using the same screen name.
Actually, he’s probably a combination of all three.
Whatever he is, he’s usually a troll.
“SanDisk players are incompatible with, and will not (directly) play music, videos, or TV shows purchased from Apple’s iTunes Music Store.”
nani says, “… as if it’s SanDisks fault. After all it is Apple who locks other players out of iTunes. I’m not saying that Apple doesn’t have the right to restrict iTunes to the iPod, but to criticize the makers of other players for their lack of iTunes capability is silly.”
…as if it’s Apples fault that DRM’d WMA and WMP files can’t play on the iPod, or Macs. At least iTunes purchases can play on a pc.
I have a Sandisc 1gig player and it’s no where near as user friendly as an iPod. Yes it has voice recording and a built in mic but I’ve never found a use for it. It has FM radio but is a bugger to put back into mp3 player mode. And yeah sounds just as good as an iPod through headphones. But for simplicity, the tie in with the Music Store (which you don’t have to use of course) and looks, which arn’t everything I know, you can’t beat Apple. Live with it.
SanDisk’s remarks are simply “sour grapes.” There is no accounting for the whims of the marketplace and it is just a happy accident that, in this case, the marketplace has chosen to embrace a clearly-superior product like the iPod in preference to one of the numerous shlock products that are always out there.
SanDisk makes very serviceable “me too” products. Only rarely does any company create a visionary product like the iPod. That kind of success, sadly, provokes both admiration and hatred. The iPod, alas, is more perfect than mankind, its creator.
Schmluss says; “…as if it’s Apples fault that DRM’d WMA and WMP files can’t play on the iPod, or Macs. At least iTunes purchases can play on a pc.” …
Right – I agree.. my point is that while it’s true that Windows based DRM won’t work on the iPod it’s because they don’t chose to develop a Mac version. It’s certainly fair to criticize them for locking out Mac users. Not that I’m interested in using anything other than the iPod…
But you really can’t criticize SanDisk for not making their player compatible with iTunes when Apple won’t license the code.
(btw – i love my iPod)
It’s silly to point the finger at SanDisk when they really have no way to make their player compatible wirth iTunes even if they wanted to.
(btw – i love my iPod – and would never use anything else)
Mac Daily News repeatedly describes other manufacturers’ hardware as;
‘not compatible with iTunes’…. Like I said – it’s not a valid criticism – even if it is a point of fact.
(btw – i love my iPod – and all three of my Macs)
This may be the best way for Apple to build their markety share – but let’s keep the facts straight. It’s not SanDisk that is deciding that iTunes will only work (directly) with the iPod – Apple is.
(btw – i love my iPod and OS X)
SanDisk did have another choice. They could have developed their own store and software like Apple and Sony did.
If they developed a subscription service with good software and gave away a good 4GB player with every one year subscription with unlimited downloads they could grab a big chunk of market share.
The first one with the ‘free player with a one year signup’ plan will win big. It works for cell phones.
i really want one of these sandisc things
i just want one thats smaller, looks kool, has less controls, no radio(wtf do i want with a radio) and no voice recording
it also must be usable with itunes
oh yeah make it all for less then 50 bucks
i will buy a few…i promise
Every mp3 player is usable with iTunes, in a round about way. When you plug in your Sandisk,Rio,Bean,River,Zen whatever, and the icon pops up on the desktop, simply open the icon and drag the mp3s into iTunes. It works fine. You don’t get syncing but if you just want to play your tunes with a computer it’s great.
They talk crap at Harvey Norman (Preston Store)!!
I was at Harvey Norman a while ago and overheard a salesman talking to a customer who was inquiring about a BenQ monitor, a brand of which the customer never heard of. And the reply to the customer was, THEY MAKE THE APPLE iPOD!!!, just so he could make the sale.
I regret never having the opportunity to tell the customer that the salesperson was lying.
So I wouldn’t believe a thing that salesperson or anyone at Harvey Norman says, they push PCs. When they sold Macs( mainly iMacs, Bondi and so on), the people there didn’t know anything about them and encouraged the customer to buy PCs, therefore they no longer sell Macs.
Also HN stores are expensive because they are franchised and have to pay HN the HN tax (franchise fee & commissions).