Portable MP3 player sales to grow 50% per year in U.S.

December 9, 2003

Although not as hot as DVD players, Jupiter research says the digital downloading frenzy is helping to fuel rapid growth of portable MP3 players. They indicate that the trend shall last at least until 2006. Needless to say, hardware manufacturers are ecstatic. Some online services such as Apple, are having a symbiotic relationship right now between their hardware and software products. By using the iTunes service as a loss leader to provide material for the popular iPod hardware, one hand washes the other so to speak. Apparently, it's all about convenience.

Shipments of MP3 players should hit 3.5 million in 2003, almost double 2002 figures, Jupiter said in a report issued on Tuesday. It also said that there will be more than 26 million MP3 players in use by 2006. Starting in 2004, the demand for players with hard drives will surpass that of players with flash memory.

New music players and download services such as Apple's iPod and its iTunes store have "energised the music industry," Jupiter said.

Amazingly, some big names like Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Amazon.com are going to miss this years opportunities. Well, maybe not Microsoft as we have read here they are going to collect royalties on the FAT system
used for storing the data. "Portable music players, combined with online music
stores and services, will be a strong holiday shopping combination." David Card,
Jupiter's research director stated.

Source: ZDnet