Strange iPod Accessories

abb_road writes "The desire to customize the iPod, when combined with the desire to make a quick buck, can lead to some very strange iPod accessories. While sales of iPods are lower than predicted, the accessory market is still going strong. 'In fact, iPod add-ons have gone, shall we say, fringe. There's a growing list of weird and wacky accessories that range from a leather thong case (it's not what you think) to a dock that doubles as a toilet-tissue holder.'"

Comments

Meanwhile

[MrSquirrel]

Creative and the other mp3 players get no accessories. This is an overlooked market (last time I checked, Creative holds 5% of the mp3 player market... don't say that's too small, because remember -- that's about the percentage that Apple holds in the computer market) and it makes me sad (then again, maybe I don't want any accessories if manufacturers are going to make a leather thong for my Zen).

Re:Meanwhile

[Golias]

Writing software for a Mac and/or Linux is a very different proposition from fabricating hardware for a niche music player.

As expensive as software development is, it doesn't really compare with tooling a factory for making hardware that works with a specific MP3 player, then programming the firmware for said device.

The iPod has been using pretty much the same dock connector for a couple years now, so if you make a gadget for the iPod dock connector there's damn near 50 Million potential customers out there.

Creative has clawed it's way to be the biggest of "the rest of them" with the Zen, at least in terms of this year's sales, but I wouldn't be surprised if somebody came out with a statistic that said there were more iRivers out there than Zens. If you are going to go after the "not an iPod" market, your best bet is to make generic gadgets which plug into the headphone jack of any player, and don't rely on the manufacturer-specific features on one niche player.

The iPod is far from perfect. It needs more RAM, and still lacks gapless playback (a major buzz-kill, IMHO), but between its market dominance and it's dock connector with standardized pin-outs, it's no surprise that it's what most manufacturers are building accessories for.

If I'm the CEO of "SuperCoolOggAndMP3Players, inc.", I'd be talking to Apple about licensing the iPod dock for my player. It probably would not be a cheap deal, but it would give me a leg up over Creative and all the other also-rans out there, including the upcoming player from Microsoft.

Re:Meanwhile

[nolife]

The accessory manufacturers are going to go after the iPod demographic because those are the types of people most likely to spend more $ on kitchy add-ons, since they (knowingly and sometimes proudly) paid the "Apple premium" for their iPod

I completely disagree. Making an accessory for an iPod is a good market decision regardless of the amount of disposable income of those who own one may have. I'm sure people with a car valued at over $100K have a lot of disposable income as well but generating enough income on third party sales of an add on for every one of those cars would not be easy because of the limited volume. A company can make an add on and everyone that already owns an iPod is a potential customer. Another advantage is Apple appears to be keeping the docking port compatible across different model lines. This allows more companies (including car makers with the optional built in docking ports) to take a chance that they will at least get their money back or even make money from the add on that uses that. Add the quantity of iPods with the quantity and variety of add-ons and the overall experience and usefulness of the iPod is much better, a synergy. The cellular phone and accessories market follows the same trends. The more popular phones have the most and least expensive add on which makes those phones even more popular. Chicken or the egg?

Take this concept a bit further and to separate Apple from the mix for a bit. If all portable audio makers followed a standard for a docking port and remote control, the consumer would benefit even more. Imagine buying any portable audio player and being able to "dock" it into that $200 speaker system or on the dash of your car. The consumers would get more choice and flexibility and the third party products to interface with would be more plentiful and cheaper. You can always use the line out or headphone jack but that is not as elegant and unified with things like steering wheel buttons.
Of course this will never happen because this whole thing is all profit driven. The "universal" interface would be patented and require a license to be paid to some group for every device made and the implementation would never reach a critical mass. Some companies would feel they can stay proprietary and not use the "universal system" because they think they have enough market share by themselves would hamper acceptance as well (think about the past practices of Sony and Apple). It is a shame because it really is a good idea. Back to a cellular phone example. Compare the price and availability of a standard jack (2.5mm 3 tip plug) headset for hands free to a phone that uses some proprietary hands free device with its own connector. Which is cheaper and more readily available? The critical mass has been reached for that specific application and almost every cordless and cellular phone made now uses the same standard. Power adapters for cellular phones are getting to that point but slower.

In summary and to get back on topic ;). I believe the high quantity of iPods makes the third party market, not the income of those with an iPod.

Re:Win one...

[timster]

More like "submitter is making stuff up".

In fact, Apple sold 8.5 million iPods in the quarter ending April 1, which of course doesn't include the holiday quarter. This is an increase of 61% over the same quarter in 2005.

To include the holiday season: for the six months ending on 4/1 they sold 22.5 million, which is an increase of 128% over the same period in 2005.

True, "predicted" is sort of a weasel word; some people predicted more, and some people predicted less. I'm not aware of a published consensus estimate of iPod unit sales.

iPod Shoulder Bag

[yderf]

I could see how the shoulder bag could seem strange, but my friend's wife has one and they use it to take their ipod to the beach, works great.

saturation or I just dont undestand marketing

[grapeape]

How is it that sales are always supposed to increase for a gadget? Doesnt the market eventually reach a point where most of the people that want one, have one? After that the market is mostly maintenance and upgrade? My understanding is thats basically what has the PC market stagnant how is the mp3 player industry any different?

Re:saturation or I just dont undestand marketing

[soft_guy]

Yes, this does happen. That's when the business changes from being a very valuable and covetted business to being a "mature" business. If you want to have a "hot stock", you need a good rate of growth.

For example, look at Microsoft. They are very profitable, but because they have now reached the status of "mature business", their growth rate isn't as high as it once was. This has caused their stock price to remain very steady for a while now. Back when they were growing their revenues rapidly, the stock price was climbing along with that.

The reason why you are hearing so much about growth is that Apple was able to dramatically grow their revenues with iPod sales and iPod sales were growing. If iPod sales STOP growing, Apple's stock will be stagnate unless/until they come up with something else to drive growth.

Re:Win one...

[courtarro]

True, "predicted" is sort of a weasel word; some people predicted more, and some people predicted less.

It's the sort of phrase that sounds meaningful but doesn't necessarily contain any substance. It goes along with the Fox News statement "some people say..." that makes the viewer think there are people who hold a certain belief without providing any actual facts to confirm.

Thong Wrong

[cpopin]

How do you access the iPod wheel?