“Here we go again — another challenger to Apple’s seemingly impenetrable iPod franchise,” Tim Beyers writes for The Motley Fool. “On Monday, SanDisk unveiled a new eight-gigabyte music player for roughly $250, while lowering prices on other models. That’s a potentially serious blow to Apple, whose iPod nano carries a maximum four gigabytes of storage and sells for $249.”
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, yes, potentially serious, if Apple ceased all R&D over a year ago and plans no new products in the future.
Beyers continues, “SanDisk’s assault on the market has thus far earned it a 10% share of the music-player market, according to press reports. Cost advantages could increase its share, but I doubt many gains will come from Apple. SanDisk hasn’t eliminated the iPod maker’s core advantage: the seamless tie between the iPod and iTunes.”
Beyers writes, “iTunes is, in fact, essential. Other devices can’t access the store for downloading; its unique content provides a moat around the iPod, funded by Apple’s blossoming free cash flow. Expect Apple’s advantage to increase even further if the Mac maker finds a way to license movies for downloading, which I expect it will.”
Full article here.
With the opposing viewpoint, Jack Uldrich writes for The Motley Fool, “Yesterday, [SanDisk] unveiled a new, higher-end MP3 player, the Sansa e280, with eight gigabytes of flash memory storage — enough for roughly 2,000 songs. SanDisk also reported that it’s working on an MP3 player that will cost less than $100.”
“The Sansa e280 will be priced at $249.99, a price point meant to compete directly with Apple’s iPod nano. The lower-cost player will target new users at the lower end of the consumer market,” Uldrich writes. “I think SanDisk’s announcement poses a danger to Apple. To date, its increase in market share has not come at Apple’s expense — the company had 75% of the market share for MP3 players in 2005, and has the same amount today. But that could be about to change.”
“SanDisk’s latest efforts could erode Apple’s lead on two fronts. By offering twice as much memory at the same price, the Sansa e280 should compare quite favorably to the 4GB iPod nano. This could cause a number of customers looking to upgrade to switch to SanDisk. Secondly, the lower-end $100 version (which will probably also possess more memory than Apple’s popular, low-cost iPod Shuffle) could weaken Apple’s ability to reach new and younger customers. Often, these new consumers are most easily converted into higher-end customers as they age and mature,” Uldrich writes. “In addition to these two possibilities, the threat of a price war could also erode Apple’s margins.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Shieldzee” for the heads up.]
Being big fans of logic, let’s first wait to see what Apple debuts for the holiday season, shall we?
Related articles:
SanDisk intros 8GB flash-based digital music player – August 21, 2006
NPD: Apple retains huge lead with 75.6% share of U.S. music player market – August 17, 2006
As I said yesterday, look for Apple to soon update the nano to 2/4/8GB models and leave the current price points the same. That would eliminate any price advantage that SanDisk may briefly have well before the holiday shopping season even gets here.
More fluff. Other players have been offering more storage at the same or cheaper price point than Apple for a while. This is nothing new. Analysts and journalists just need something to say other than, “the iPod is great.”
Sansa does not have iTunes or the iTunesMusicStore! Sansa will continue eating Apple leftovers.
It’s clear that the makers of so-called “iPod killers” still do not get it.
It’s just like the jibe Bill Gates made about the original bubble iMacs when sales were in a frenzy. “Oh, colors – that’s SOOO hard to do [paraphrased],” he said sarcastically.
To all the likes of Bill Gates and PC makers, the iMacs were popular simply because Apple had slapped a coat of paint on. Oh, let’s do the same thing – slap a coat of paint on and make it all shiny! But that’s the kind of deep-level reasoning (sarcasm) you expect from people who don’t value integrated top-to-bottom design.
So iPod wannabe-killers are essentially doing the same thing. Let’s slap on more capacity! Let’s do video! Let’s add FM! Let’s add more plastic shiny buttons! Lower the price even more! Add wireless! That will really kill the iPod!
Yet thoughout all this, it seems that they are so blinded by own neuroses that they can’t see the simple words that have been a part of every iPod commercial to date.
iPod + iTunes
That pretty much says it all.
The thing is that sure this may give SanDisk more sales, maybe even a couple of percent market share. So what? That’s barely a dent, even then all Apple has to do is the same. Cut prices a bit, add more space and instantly they’re back to where they were.
Look for Apple to make a “Checkmate” move like reduce the 30G video iPod to $250.
If you were a consumer which would you choose, 8G Sandisk or 30G video iPod?
I know, it’s all about flash memory but feature hungry consumers would scarf up 30G iPods in droves since they like the larger advertised capacity and video playback too.
So what if the Sandisk has a tuner. The beauty of iPod is, you’ve got all your music with you and NO ADVERTISING. Once you experience how amazing ad free music and entertainment truely is you’ll never want to turn on a tuner again.
I like how these writers can’t see their nose in front of their face. Clearly, they know Apple is soon to launch new iPod product, yet they do not even dare to speculate about this.
BUT
They do speculate as to how SanDisk could really crush Apple.
So the writer speculates on who SanDisk will erode Apple, but refuse to speculate how Apple is about to launch a new Nano?…
Can anyone else see the spin in this?
Apple will launch 8 GB nano’s, with an ever so slightly larger and higher resolution screen, capable of video playback – for the same prices SanDisk it toughting.
Lastly, Apple has iTunes – DUH. Game over SanDisk, but thanks for playing and eating up Creative and Sony’s market share.
~Steven
Isn’t this more about SanDisk trying to gain a stronger foothold before Zune arrives and obliterates all other PC based players?
the bottom 20% of the market place is getting damned crowded, I smell a blood letting, goodbye……..unCreative Labs
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Yeah, I’m going to spend that kind of money to “upgrade” my iPod to one of these… giving up all that makes an iPod great. Right.
“that could be about to change”
Oh no!!!!
So long as all those other manufacturers continue to ghettoize themselves by only working on a single platform (Windows Media Player) they’re never getting a dime from me…why should I consider buying a player that won’t even work on my computer?
MDN magic word “rate” as in “Yet another second-rate iPod competitor.”
I think Apple is holding back to blast the zoonie junk out of the water. All the other ‘killers’ will be sucked down in it’s wake of crappy malware junk. I can’t wait!!
I thought juggernaut described those female lifeguards on Baywatch.
The iPod is like OMG so doomz0red articles stopped for awhile as everyone realized that it wasn’t just a fad but recently they have been all over the place. From the laughable idea that YouTubes non portable ad supported music video strategy is going to kill iTunes (it won’t even kill music video sales which can’t be more than a couple percent of total sales) to this current BS about SanDisk it shows that people don’t get it. The iPod brand is very strong and people like their players. They are unlikely to switch any time soon. A competitor having a higher capacity for a few days, weeks even a few months isn’t going to change the tide. If SanDsk can consistently stay leaps ahead of Apple in capacity it might matter eventually but Apple will catch up.
Maybe the upswing in MS trying to make self fulfilling prophecies. Maybe if comsumers think iTunes is going to fall they will get in line to be Zunes. Doubt it but it’s a good effort.
$250? For $279 you can get refurbished 60GB iPod from Apple. For $299 you can get an iPod with video.
Apple could wait until the Zuney Tunes player is out, then kick Microsoft into last week, like it did after that zaney crew in Redmond spent millions to buy Virtual PC, only to find that Steve Jobs had made it irrelevant.
Maybe a molecular-drive iPod that holds every song ever written and every song that ever will be written, and sells for $99.95. It would use a helium molecule, though, so that years down the road Dell would be stuck with Sony hydrogen molecules. Some things never change.
right-on NewType.
sandisk is the “Apple” of the “mp3” market
I do declare, that SanDisk thingy sho nuff looks like a Zune-killer to me. Hey, Ballmer, I heard tell that SanDisk does twice as much as Zune and at hafl the cost. It is true?
There’s nothing wrong with this player. It looks like a strong competitor in the non-iPod niche. But there is one problem. I went to sandisk.com to see if I could order one now, and the only thing I can do is “pre-order” it now.
So when is it actually available? When Apple “releases” a new iPod, it takes full advantage of the media hype to make it available immediately. Sandisk is following in the footsteps of Microsoft, and that can’t be good. Perhaps by the time these “Sansa” players become available for $249, Apple will already be on the market with the new metallic nanos.
I know bigger capacity is supposed to be a big deal…but seriously…I have a very large CD collection..3 ipods…and none of them is full..
the ipod with video has 19 gigs available and I have a bunch of daily shows..and a movie on it! (thanks to Handbrake)…
I just don’t have time to listen to all the music I have..or transfer it all so I can listen to it..or pick the ratings, or all the rest of that crap…I just want to hear what’s there…
Honestly..I don’t care if my ipod has a 400 gig drive. The only time it matters is if you really need to carry an enormous amount of music, photos and data around with you. So competing on this basis just seems kind of silly to me. If HD video were on the iPod…or other storage intensive data it might mean more….but…they aren’t…. yet.
Very few users of iPod products are going to ever switch and sacrifice their iTunes purchases, not to mention the seamless ease of use that iTunes offers for music import and management, regardless of the size of the device.
On the other hand, new mp3 player buyers COULD be attracted to higher-capacity alternatives, particularly at the low end, not to mention other bells and whistles (FM, song selectivity – unlike the shuffle – larger screen, etc.). That market will mostly consist of kids (or their parents buying for them) and the tech illiterati or those too anti-Apple to be smart about it.
Capacities have just about maxed out at the limits of usefulness, unless flash approaches hard drives in cost-per-GB. Who really <needs> 100 GB of videos, music, or pictures on their iPod all at once? Is it worth the extra cost? Battery life is more important, traded against device and screen size (also very important).
Man, you guys really sound nervous… Why else would you all go through the time to even respond to this article with all of your “justifications” of why the iPod will always rule.
I have an iPod mini, have looked at the nano, and while I still like the scroll wheel, that’s really about all it has going for it at the moment. And I simply cannot stand iTunes. I hate having to use Apple’s proprietary file format that I can’t even run on my PC in Windows Media Player, or in my car sterio mp3 system. I tried 3rd party sync solutions for the PC so I wouldn’t have to use iTunes, and some of them aren’t bad I guess.
Anyhow, I am looking around for what to upgrade to, and this Sandisk player looks like a good one to me. I tried one out at the store, and while the scroll wheel is not as nice as Apple’s (like I said, no one’s controls are as nice as Apple’s in my opinion), I do like other aspects of it much better than on my iPod. The tuner seems to work well, the microphone, video, and of course .mp3’s instead of that other file format of Apple’s… The bottom line is that it looks to me like you just get a lot more for the money with the Sansa. It also just feels more solid than the nano, like it won’t scratch or break if I drop it.
I doubt it will ever come anywhere near Apple in terms of sales. I mean, when so many people call all mp3 players “iPods”, I think that pretty much says it all. IPod is and will probably always be the market leader. But for me personally, I’ll most likely be buying the Sansa. The bottom line is that it’s just a better deal all the way around. That was true even before the recently announced 8GB model and price drops, but those just made my decision that much easier.