Cellphones Fail to Challenge iPod Dominance
JupiterResearch has forecast that growth rates for USA sales of dedicated MP3 players will slow dramatically. However, according to a new JupiterResearch report, as the market moves beyond early adopters who purchase multiple devices and upgrade regularly, the user base will steadily increase from 37 million in 2006 to over 100 million in 2011.
"Apple shows no signs of losing momentum, having conditioned customers to expect and adopt regular upgrades, as well as defined targeted use cases with optimized functionality," said Michael Gartenberg, Vice President & Research Director at JupiterResearch. "Despite the coming of Zune, the return of closed-loop digital music service-device combinations, and music phones on the horizon, the iPod should not lose significant market share in the next 12 to 18 months."
JupiterResearch also finds that the installed base of mobile phones capable of playing MP3 quality songs will surpass the number of music devise users beginning in 2009, but actual usage of music phones is nascent in the US.
"Impulse over-the-air music purchases will be a tough challenge for both wireless devices and phones due to infrastructure limits, incompatibility, pricing tensions, and user interfaces," said David Card, Vice President & Senior Analyst at JupiterResearch. "US mobile phone carriers are underemphasizing or ignoring altogether the necessity of enabling users to 'sideload' existing music collections onto a phone because they can't charge for it."
Posted to the site on 27th October 2006
