Support Our Site
Get Better Gear!
- Notability For iPad: Much More Than A Note Taking App from Ginger Labs, Inc, US$0.99
- Scosche’s RH656m Headphones With Microphone Are Wonderful from Scosche, US$129.99
- IPEVO’s Typi Folio Case & Keyboard for iPad is First-rate from IPEVO, US$79.99
- Scosche’s boomSTREAM BT Speaker: Features & Compromises from Scosche, US$99.95
- FX Photo Studio HD: iPad Painting of Effects Made Easy from MacPhun LLC, US1.99
Top 5 Free Apps
iTunes New Music Releases
Top 5 Paid Apps
Discover New Music
- Modern Lovers
This timeless masterpiece is little known, but it has inspired almost as many bands as The Modern Lovers' own inspiration -- and only slightly better known -- The Velvet Underground & Nico.
- Nine Inch Nails
- For years I wanted to make music that sounded like something between Love and Rockets and Ministry. In 1989, Trent Reznor beat me to it with this genre-defining album, and it smacked me upside the hea
- Aretha Franklin
While she didn't always have the best taste in song selection, Aretha Franklin is a must-study for anyone with interest in the human voice. She has the kind of powerful, recklessly passionate deliv
- Billy Miles
- Take the voice of a young Billie Holiday and stuff it into a svelte, petite body with the face of an angel, and you have some idea of what it's like to experience the music of Billy Miles in her self-
- Goldfrapp
On their latest CD, Supernature, Goldfrapp has put together a successful mix of 1980-era New Romanticism, German cabaret, and T. Rex glam that leaves you riveted even through the album's lulls. It's a great amalgam that sounds current without sounding at all dated.
Reader Specials
Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!
News
Apple Looks to Drive iPod Growth in China, India, Other Emerging Markets
Tuesday, March 7th, 2006 at 2:00 PM - by Brad Cook
While analysts expect Apple's explosive iPod growth to eventually plateau in the United States, plenty of opportunities remain in such countries as China, India and other emerging markets. As Troy Wolverton explained for TheStreet.com, the company's success in those nations "depends on how well it convinces overseas consumers that the iPod is as hip to have in China or India as it is in the U.S."
Apple's U.S. market share in the MP3 players market was 73% last year, but Mr. Wolverton estimates that it was just 16.5% worldwide, with 57% of the iPods sold in 2005 going to overseas consumers. He added that while retail sales of the devices grew 170% in the U.S. last year, they rose by almost 270% worldwide, according to numbers supplied by research firm iSuppli.
Mr. Wolverton noted, however, that piracy remains one of the biggest obstacles in such countries as China and Russia, where "pirated music content with no software protections attached is widely available with little scrutiny from government authorities," he wrote. iSuppli analyst Chris Cotty told the reporter that "part of Apple's success in the U.S. followed the crackdown here on unregulated sharing of music files on sites such as the original Napster."
As a consequence, "in a country like China, where you get all this content for free, it doesn't matter whose player you pick," Mr. Crotty said. In fact, such nations have many low-cost, generic equivalents to the iPod, especially when looking at competitors to the iPod shuffle. With margins razor-thin, it might not make sense for the company to compete in that area, Gartner analyst Jon Erensen told him.
Among higher-end players, however, Apple "would love to get piece of that market, as long as it makes sense," Mr. Erensen said.
Recent Headlines
- Reading, Writing, & Saving the World
- Free Retro Gaming for iOS - Activision’s Kaboom!
- Apple Adds Chomp Bits to iOS 6 App Store Discovery
- Notability For iPad: Much More Than A Note Taking App
- Scosche’s RH656m Headphones With Microphone Are Wonderful
- Tim Cook & Larry Page Reportedly Discuss Patents
- Analysis: Amazon Kindle Fire Sold Out, Kindle Fire 2 Pic Leaked
Post Your Comments