Membranophonist’s Ramblings

Based on IDC’s research, Apple holds the #1 (10GB), #3 (20GB) , and #5 (40GB) spots for top-selling digital music players for November ‘03. No big surprises there. I am very curious about the December numbers, but we will obviously have to wait a while for those.

What is interesting are the #2 and #4 devices - 128MB Flash-based players from Digitalw@y and iRiver (the iFP-380T). I would not spend $110-$140 for a player with such low capacity, but the top 5 stats clearly show that there is a large market for such devices. The considerations for Apple are storage medium (Flash or hard drive-based), price, and capacity. Given the price-to-capacity ratios of Flash versus hard disks, I doubt Apple will use NVRAM as the basis for a lower price and capacity iPod. If anything, I think Apple will shoot for pricing more competitive with, but not lower than the Flash-based products while trouncing them in capacity.

The mixture of codec support among the top five players shows that the actual format of the audio means very little to most people - capacity and price are the key factors when considering a purchase. Most prospective buyers don’t see the iPod packaging and say “No WMA!? This is not for me!” They want to know how much music it holds, how long the battery lasts, and how much it is going to cost them.