Shipments of portable MP3 music players leapt 190.8 percent last year to a total of 1.95 million units.
IDC Australia reports in a survey titled Fighting for a Piece of Apple’s Pie (to rub it in, IDC headed its media release: Will you have video with that? (Apple’s iPod dominates the sector, and the company is looking to move into the accessory market with its iPod HiFi, pictured.)
The flash segment grew an 392.4 percent in 2005. “Apple’s withdrawal of the iPod Mini (a portable jukebox) and the subsequent replacement [by] the iPod Nano (a portable flash) signifies the market shift from jukebox to flash,” says Sophie Lo, IDC analyst for consumer digital markets.
(IDC uses the term “jukebox” to indicate a player with a hard drive capable of holding many thousands of tunes). “We expect the flash segment to grow at the expense of the jukebox segment as flash capacities increase from 4GB in 2006 to 8GB in 2007 and 16GB in 2008,” Lo said. IDC predicts that the portable MP3 player market will experience a compound annual growth rate of 12.5 percent from 2005 to 2010, reaching 3.52 million unit shipments in 2010.
