In Sunday’s (8/29) Guardian (London), Charles Arthur reports, “Seasoned watchers of the company know that this is the time of year when the iPod gets a refresh, yet there’s a shadow over the digital music player that turned Apple from an also-ran computer company into a force in the technology world. The latest sales figures for the quarter to June showed 9m sold—the lowest quarterly number since 2006. In short, the iPod, launched in October 2001, looks to be in terminal decline. While Apple is unworried—sales of its iPhone and iPad are booming—the drooping figures for the digital music player market are a concern for another sector: the music companies. The music industry had looked to the iPod to drive people to buy music in download form, whether from Apple’s iTunes music store, eMusic, Napster or from newer competitors such as Amazon. … As iPod sales slow, digital music sales, which have been yoked to the device, are likely to slow too. The iPod has been the key driver … figures show no appreciable digital download sales until 2004, the year Apple launched its iTunes music store internationally (it launched it in the US in April 2003).”
Posted August 31, 2010
