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MP3 Market Approaching Critical Mass
An anonymous reader writes "Led by the Apple iPod, Jupiter Research says that sales of DAPs are reaching a point where it will ignite an industry of support products and services. According to Jupiter analyst David Card
'Historically, any new device or medium that reaches a U.S. household penetration of 15 percent to 20 percent creates a critical mass of customers for other products and services.' The iPod already has a slew of peripherals out there and this is particularly good news for the paid download services like iTunes, especially with Apple announcing Wednesday they sold another 5.3 million iPods last quarter."
...in this story that suggests that Apple's music dominance is not viewed as favourable by record labels. In fact, it mentions the labels' efforts to start working with wireless phone carriers to charge more for music via ring tones, which is "more in line with their economics".
DBA? Software Engineer? My company is hiring! Click
Now all we need is a report of how many of those iPods are sent back for faulty manafacturing and instability...
I cringe everytime I see a person jogging down the street with their iPod on the side, listening to music. (If you didn't know the hard drive in the iPod if shaken/moved at an exact point when the HD spin, it can/will break the iPod and render it totally useless)
Because Apple has always had the attitude that there's room for a peripheral market to coexist with their own market. They let the other companies fill the random niches that are created.
Do tell o' wise one, where may I see this promised land of the MP3 market?
You make a 74 minute long playlist of DRMed AACs, WMAs, and RMs and save them to an audio CD. Then you click on "Import as MP3". Yeh, you lose a miniscule amount of audio quality that you MAY be able to hear if you listen to it, but when you're walking down the street or sitting on a train with earbuds connected to your MP3 player... you'll never notice it.
My Neuros does! http://www.neurosaudio.com/
TartanBlue
Using the Casette Tape and Compact Disc as previous examples, let's look at other indicators:
- In car support for the media (3rd party manufacturers like Alpine are supporting iPod as well as luxury brands like BMW. GM is supporting all DAP's by making a front panel line in standard)
- In home support for the media (Apple Airport Express allows for music streaming)
- Portable support (just like the Walkman, we have the iPod)
- As seen on TV (plenty of Movies and TV shows with characters using the devices like a recent Law & Order that opened with two teens discussing how many songs can fit on an iPod)
- Major industry backing (from Microsoft to HP to Virgin Records, Digital Audio is supported by the Fortune 500 globally)
- Small business using the format in their name (don't we all miss "Tower Records" records? Or "CD Warehouse"? I am sure there are plenty of Web properties with iPod in the name. "iPodlounge.com" comes to mind.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
What are you talking about?
Apple's iPod has been able to play/hold non-compressed non lossy songs since day 1.
Take your $20 discman and throw it into the trash
Take your rack of CDs and import them as WAV, or if you want, lossless compressed ALE, into iTunes
Plug in an iPod and you have your 'rack of CDs' in the palm of your hand.
GPL Deconstructed
I do understand, and I'm not responsible to fix anything to your satisfaction.
Actually, you just made it abundantly clear that you don't understand.
The RIAA is not a record label "cartel" at all. It's a trade guild, just as the anonymous coward who kicked this whole debate off pointed out, and "anti-piracy" activity, both legitimate and bullshit, is a very very small part of what they do.
In any case, the RIAA has nothing whatsoever to do with the dispute between Apple Computer and the labels in question.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Here you go:
A tape deck.
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