Almost Half of MP3 Player Owners Own an iPod

Just to show how rapid the growth of the Flash-based and HDD-based market is, look at these figures: in 2005, sales of MP3 players jumped 200 percent to 140M units sold. In-Stat Drivers, a market research firm, estimates that these figures will soar to 286M by 2010. According to In-Stat’s research, the surge in sales will be due to “falling price points, the availability of legitimate subscription and pay-per-download online music sites, increasing Flash memory capacities, and enhanced functionality”.

Although this is good news for all MP3 player manufacturers, Apple still has more reasons to rejoice. Seems like more and more users of MP3 player prefer the iPod. The research conducted by the research firm show that 49% of MP3 player owners possess an iPod. Basing on the 2005 statistics, it means that Apple had approximately 68M iPods sold last year!

With the MP3 player race depending on its evolution to a multimedia entertainment device, Apple better have some more tricks planned for their iPod to keep the numbers in their favor.

Just to show how rapid the growth of the Flash-based and HDD-based market is, look at these figures: in 2005, sales of MP3 players jumped 200 percent to 140M units sold. In-Stat Drivers, a market research firm, estimates that these figures will soar to 286M by 2010. According to In-Stat’s research, the surge in sales will be due to “falling price points, the availability of legitimate subscription and pay-per-download online music sites, increasing Flash memory capacities, and enhanced functionality”.

Although this is good news for all MP3 player manufacturers, Apple still has more reasons to rejoice. Seems like more and more users of MP3 player prefer the iPod. The research conducted by the research firm show that 49% of MP3 player owners possess an iPod. Basing on the 2005 statistics, it means that Apple had approximately 68M iPods sold last year!

With the MP3 player race depending on its evolution to a multimedia entertainment device, Apple better have some more tricks planned for their iPod to keep the numbers in their favor.