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The Billion Dollar iPod Accessories Market
OleSurinam writes "The NYTimes has a story about the lucrative iPod accessories market." From the article: "Making add-ons for the iPod is a $1 billion business. Does that sound like hyperbole? Consider this. Last year, Apple sold 32 million iPods, or one every second. But for every $3 spent on an iPod, at least $1 is spent on an accessory, estimates Steve Baker, an analyst for the NPD Group, a research firm. That works out to three or four additional purchases per iPod."
It's the same reason why Apple doesn't make cameras and printers anymore. Unless they develop inhouse it's likely that they will have to pay for licensing fees and lag behind companies that can pump out products quicker. That's why the dock connector is such genius. Apple gets a small royalty for each accessory using the dock connector without putting R&D into new products that might fail miserably.
I am certain that Apple is letting this industry flourish because it is selling more iPods. Want an mp3 boombox? Buy and iPod and one of those sound docks. Want tunes in the car that don't suck? Buy an FM transmitter and an iPod. Outboard battery packs make iPod use feasible on long plane rides. All these things make more people want to fund the iPod industry.
Bury me in mashed potatoes.
And once you have all of those accessories, you're pretty much locked into iPod-land, otherwise you'd have to repurchase not only a new mp3 player, but also repurchase all new accessories to go with...
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
I like the circular logic of people not wanting their precious iPods to get scratched, so they buy a case that looks like a wallet, but protects their iPod from scatches, that no one will ever see since the cool design of the iPod and the non-existant scratches will never been seen! Same logic goes for ppl that buy bras for their cars.
My 20G iPod is scratched to hell, and it should be; I've used it daily for almost 2 years! My car has marks on the front, and it should: I've driven it for almost 2 years, will allot of highway driving!
Don't get me started on Grecim's men's forumla or botox treatments...
fak3r.com
and even higher-end producers like Bose and Coach make iPod add-ons now.
For the sake of accuracy, please make that the last time you ever use "higher-end" and "Bose" in the same sentence, unless it's to say something like, "there's the higher-end, and then there's overpriced crap like Bose."
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I've seen this, and it does indeed make tons more sense to me than the other 'covers'; you keep the look/size/shape of the iPod but have it protected.
fak3r.com
Making add-ons for the iPod is a $1 billion business. Does that sound like hyperbole? Consider this. Last year, Apple sold 32 million iPods, or one every second. But for every $3 spent on an iPod, at least $1 is spent on an accessory...
Okay, now let's see. Accessories are a $1B business, and for every dollor spent on accessories, three dollars are spent on iPods. That makes iPods a $3B business.
32 million iPods sold into $3B is and average price per iPod of $93.75.
Last time I checked, most of the iPods cost way more than that, and none of them are cheaper. Somebody is pulling numbers out of his ass somewhere.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Yeesh, someone's never heard of the free market, eh? Don't get me wrong -- I own no $29 iPod socks. But I have no malice toward apple for making such a thing available for exchange.
"Damn the waffle-cone vendor for his $4 outrageously priced airy delights, whose value is scarcely greater than the cost of the goods: 25 cents. Damn him for selling them to all those volunteering customers! If only they knew the TRUE (my) value of waffle-cones."
Free trade -- founded on the twin principles that everyone ascribes different valuations to different goods, and that people can be left to their own devices to acquire the goods that they themselves value the most.
Brought to you by Capitalists. You know, those people who make it possible to spend 8 or so hours a day doing the kind of work you choose to do in order to procure the goods you like -- like iPod socks, bread without crust, jelly and peanut butter swirled together in a jar, and Microsoft Windows. Hey, I'm not judging you -- it's your money.