Is the iPod Losing Ground?
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You still see Apple's iPod everywhere you look, but lately there have been other music players making headway in the market. Are they a real threat? And how are they chipping away at Apple's market share? Should the company change its iPod or iTunes music store in the face of surprisingly resilient competition?
When I walk across my university campus all I see are those white iPod ear buds and iPods. Everyone is using an iPod it seems, from walking to class to rocking out while doing their homework. Apple has cleaned up the portable music market since the introduction of the iPod in 2001.
They later introduced the mini, shuffle and nano, which were put out to gain more of a market share. Apple still holds the biggest market share by leaps and bounds, but that market share is slowly decreasing. What is making people switch MP3 players away from Apple’s famous iPods?
What made the iPod a hit?
When Apple introduced the iPod in 2001, it was one of the first hard drive based MP3 players. At 5 GB it was a monster compared to the 32 MB flash players around at that time. These days, it's not unusual for someone to take their entire music library with them on their iPod; for a true audiophile, that would have been difficult with the smaller flash players.
What made it even better was its ease of use. The scroll wheel made it a breeze to scroll through every song in a matter of a few seconds. Syncing with the computer was a snap with iTunes; you plug in your iPod, and iTunes does everything else. Once the iPod took off, the iPod became the “cool” MP3 player. People got it because they saw everyone else with it.
But lately there has been a huge push by competitors to steal market share from Apple. To do so, they had to come up with a better MP3 player. There have been a few companies that have been able to do so.
Next: The Competition >>
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