A new report from Jupiter Research predicts that in the US alone, over 100
million portable MP3 players will be in use by 2011.
The 'US Portable Music Device Forecast, 2006 to 2011' concept report
forecasts what the company says will be a "dramatic slowdown" in the sales of
MP3 players, followed by steady expansion through 2011.
The report comes as Microsoft prepares to launch its highly-anticipated Zune
player on November 14, just weeks after
SanDisk
and
Apple
rolled out major upgrades to their MP3 players.
One company that may not feel the predicted slowdown is iPod maker Apple
Computers. Jupiter vice president and research director Michael Gartenberg says
that Apple's customers have come to expect and support regular product upgrades,
making them more frequent buyers.
"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," said Gartenberg.
The study criticises some MP3-ready mobile phone systems, saying that though
the devices will outnumber dedicated MP3 players by 2009, the actual usage of
the phones for listening to music is "nascent in the US".
"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," said Jupiter Research vice president
and senior analyst David Card, who served as lead analyst for the report.
Do you agree?
Have your say on this article