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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.
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...
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