The booming iPod economy
There's an in-depth article over at C-Net on the booming industry of iPod accessories. It primarily focuses on the fact that out of all the iPods sold, 75% of them were sold in the past year, with 40% of them being sold in the last 3 months of 2004.
Some of this was mentioned in the MW2005 keynote. While the iPod has done well, it's been positively booming over the last little while on it's own hyper-accelerated growth curve, and the companies making iPod add-ons are seeing their sales scaling right with it:
Putting a dollar figure on the "iPod economy" isn't simple, but it easily stretches into the hundreds of millions. Bart said the rule of thumb in the electronics industry is that with items like cameras or cell phones, people probably spend, on average, about 10 percent of the cost of a device on accessories. Apple has sold more than 10 million iPods, probably at an average price above $300, so the 10 percent rule would easily put the iPod add-on market in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Basically, The Cycle begins anew. Those making iPod accessories had one hell of a Christmas, and are expected to have one hell of a 2005, but things are starting to squeeze as competitors come on board... which is cool. The more companies making FM tuners for the iPod, the better they'll have to do in order to compete as things squeeze down.
Of course it'll be awhile until things mature to that degree, which means we're set for round after round of cool iPod accessories being hawked our way. Even if we have to put up with an iPod sock in the mix now and again, any way you slice it it's pretty cool.
Posted by drunkenbatmanJanuary 31, 2005, at 08:38 AM
Comments (3)
Posted by: Sunny at January 31, 2005 09:01 PM
Well said Oliver. This symbiotic relationship between Apple and 3rd party manufacturers will boost the overall value of the iPod and both will benefit economically. And it behooves Apple to promote this behavior to keep users from switching (lock-in).
What will be interesting to note is when Apple stops any viable / visible improvements to the iPod as they become assured of market domination (quite akin to what happened to MS Office and IE). Fortunately, Apple continues to provide solid improvements from the previous generation and hopefully will continue further innovation.
Posted by: Roni at March 23, 2006 06:48 PM
Here's the coolest iPod accessory in town. It's a vibrator that vibrates in rhythm to music on your iPod or other MP3 player you hook it up to: The iBuzz Vibrator. Now that's progress.
The importance of these accessories cannot be underestimated. If and when the coolness of owning an iPod subsides or something better comes along that uses WMA instead of AAC, it is this mini-ecology of complimentary products surrounding the iPod that will ensure it's survival. The more people buy add-ons that only work with iPods the more they become locked-in.