If You Were Wondering, The iPod Is Officially “There”
Two friends of mine recently went into Best Buy in hopes of buying an iPod. They asked a salesperson (don’t want to say salesman because I’d hate to be called a sexist) for advice on which one to get. Would you like to know what he recommended? I kid you not, he suggested they buy a Zune.
A ZUNE, PEOPLE!
So, upon hearing his idea, they said what most Americans probably would have said: “What’s a Zune?” He then proceeded to explain all the benefits of going with Microsoft.
If you had any doubts, they ended up getting an iPod Nano. However, this post isn’t meant to rail against the Zune. I figure if you’ve reached the point in your life where you are using a Zune, the odds are good that you have other, more severe, self destructive behaviors. No, the point of this posting is to ask all of you this question. How many people do you know that have an MP3 player that isn’t an iPod/iPhone? Because I keep seeing reports that Apple owns 80% percent of the MP3 player market. So, my question is, where are all the rest of these people? Speaking personally, I know 3 people who have MP3 players that aren’t iPods. And all three of these people are programmers who interact with their device from a command line. Clearly then, these aren’t your average users.
So how about it? How many of you know someone who uses something other than an iPod? Is it really 20%? Where are all these people hiding? Because I can’t remember the last time I was out and saw someone listening to something that didn’t have white earbuds. I think then that one can reasonably conclude that the iPod has entered a new level of popularity. I suppose in a few years it’s possible that the public will label any MP3 player with the generic term “iPod,” much like portable cassette players (and later, to a lesser extent, CD players) came to be known as Walkmen. (Is it Walkmen or Walkmans? I want to say Walkmans but it just doesn’t sounds right.)
And this brings me to the sad conclusion of this article. I think it is a safe bet to say that from here on out, the iPod line as a whole is going to be an afterthought for Apple. This is most clearly evident with the case of the iPhone and the iPod touch. You will notice that, of the two devices, it was the phone that received the newest technology. Only later did the iPod line get touch capabilities, and even now it is limited to only one model.
I think that in the next year or two (once component prices drop sufficiently) we are going to see Apple completely drop the large iPod model. I think they will reduce their lineup to the Shuffle, Nano (or Pico or whatever it will be called), the iPod touch, and the iPhone. And eventually I think the iPod touch will disappear as Apple moves away from the line towards more complex devices.
Let the good times roll.
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I don’t think Apple is going to drop the high capacity iPods any time soon as there are plenty of people who have massive libraries of audio or video that want to carry it all with them.
As for adding multitouch to the rest of the line: how would one differentiate? The iPod Touch Nano, iPod Touch Classic? Seems like it would add confusion, whereas now each iPod is easily identifiable just by looking at it. A Nano-sized touchscreen seems, to me, to be a little ridiculous. It would make video a little better on the Nano, but people complain enough already about the size of the interface objects on the iPhone and Touch, on the Nano it wouldn’t really add anything.
I think we’ll see the flash-based models grow in capacity as the costs come down, and eventually the HD-based iPods will go away and be replaced with flash, but I think Apple will keep the lineup essentially as it is now with easily differentiated models, just like with their computers.
I know several people who own non Apple of MP3 players. All of these devices are in the sub $100 category. I saw my first Zune in the wild the other day in Manhattan. While I do not know a Zune owner, I also do not know an iPhone owner. My friends are business oriented people who use Blackberry and Treo devices. Just as the iPod is on the upswing somewhere under my radar, it seems that the Zune is also making inroads. It has moved up considerably on the Amazon Bestseller list. Although I wouldn’t buy one at this time, it seems there are others who find it satisfactory. That’s hard for Apple fans to swallow, but I believe that the Zune is here to stay, which is something we can all rejoice over. More competition means better products. Whatever eventually replaces my iPod will be a much improved device.
Does anyone know if Best Buy gives their sales staff ‘Spiffs”? It’s a commission paid to the sales person by the manufacturer to recommend a particular product when the sale is made. I would not be surprised if Microsoft has to resort to this kind of thing to get some Zunes out of the stores and into some customer hands.
‘Cause the sales of iPoods are what drives these numbers. Sure, Apple sells an ungodly number of iPoods, but what’s not counted is the relatively short life span of these flawed devices. They burn out all too quickly and people are burned. Why is Zune being considered now as an alternative you query? And where are all the iPoods? They’re dead. And people are tired of iPood. And with the gap left by the iPood Touch and iPood Classic, Zune fills this niche quite nicely.
Nice article!
I don’t know anyone who wants to carry around 90 days worth of music and video with them. I agree with the author. The large capacity iPods are dead. Most people I see with iPods have a nano. I only know a handful or people with non-iPod MP3 payers and they are nut jobs who don’t under stand the power of simple user interfaces. They would rather much around with folders structures and little fiddly knobs. I’ve used a Zune and I just don’t get why anyone would buy that thing after using an iPod.
There’s a funny thing… Those Zunes really have been slowly inching up in the sales chart. I can’t argue one way or another about which one is better (I don’t have any portable audio players). Honestly, a successful competitor would be good for Apple as it would force them to continue to improve their player. Otherwise, James speculation would come true as Apple will just dump some or all versions of the device and move on to the “next greatest thing”. (Remember that Microsoft essentially stopped developing their web browser after they initially won the war with ”dead-for-real-now” Netscape.)
Honestly, a successful competitor would be good for Apple as it would force them to continue to improve their player.
I wouldn’t want a good competitor just for the sake of improving the iPod and increasing their monopoly on the PMP market. I want real choices in the marketplace. I just wish the successful competition didn’t come from just Microsoft, already a monopoly player in two markets.
That said, what’s really holding the Zune back at this point, IMO, is pricing. MS of all people should know this after basically giving away IE in order to dominate the browser world.
Given the choice between equivalent Zunes and iPods at equivalent prices, I’d go with the market leader. But given the choice between equivalent devices and a Zune that’s $50 cheaper, that’s suddenly a more difficult decision.
Flyboy - a spiff is not paid to recommend a particular product. It is a simply a commission paid on various products. They vary by product, usually if a store has them on one product, they have them on all products. They usually are designed to push sales people into selling products that either a) they have too many of, or b) make more money on.
Yes manufacturers can supplement them, but that is very rare. They prefer to discount. That makes a Zune more profitable for Best Buy, that makes Best Buy want to increase the spiff.
It’s the salesperson who is being an idiot, preferring to sell an inferior product because they get $3 more commission. When that customer feels screwed, that $3 will look pretty stupid.
I see Zunes all the time, I live in MSFT-land, and they get an employee discount. But I see far more MSFT’ers with iPods than non-MSFT’ers with Zunes.
I don’t think the Zune is better than the iPod. It’s software doesn’t run on Mac or Linux. The iPod looks better and has a better interface (although I’ll admit the new Zunes do have a nice look). Also the iPhone and Touch run Mac so theres a lot of stuff you can do with it.
And also to the author, tell your 3 friends to get either the iPhone or the Touch and jailbreak it. Then they can run command lines from that. You can make servers with it too (like HTTP).
Technically, the iPod doesn’t work on Linux either, so that’s not a point in its favor. Linux devs had to work in reverse engineering the the database which iPod manages its playlist (again with the Touches and the Classics since Apple added a checkbit apparently intended to thwart people using programs other than iTunes to manage their iPods).
I’ve know a number of people who use non-Apple MP3 players. When I ask why they didn’t buy an iPod they generally give one of following two reasons.
1) iPod’s cost too much. They were able to buy a mp3 player for under $40 U.S.
2) They hate iTunes for Windows.
Having used iTunes in Windows I would agree that it’s bad when compared to Windows Media Player or VLC Player. If I was going to base my decision to buy an Apple computer based on iTunes for Windows I would have never switched.
Note the difference between sales share and in-use share of the market. What you see in the street is what people keep and use. Sales share (boxes sold) is what the analysts measure (and usually only sales through particular channels).
Of course this can cut both ways. A device kept in a drawer counts as a sale but is invisible. On the other hand, someone who buys a new iPod every year counts as lots of sales, but he’s still only carrying one around to be seen…
Cheers
—perry
ok two articles I’ve read on this blog, two full of statistical numbers...wrong!!!! I don’t know you but:
1) I’ve got an ipod since 5 days (thank you to my girlfriend).I’ve used ipaq for more or less 3 yrs without problems
Maybe in US there are many ipods, but not everywhere it’s true.
2) Many friends of mine don’t use an ipod, they are too expensive
3) people aren’t hidden anywhere, simply your statistics are made by apple, maybe, because I can’t think that you believe really to what you are saying!!
4) for who said that ipod couldn’t be used with linux, let’s try again: Floola, free, runs on mac, linux and windows, it could manage almost everything.