100M iPods and Counting….
April 9th, 2007 Posted in Aside
Wow! Apple has sold 100 million iPods in just over five years. While 100 million is a big number, what’s more impressive is how iPod has become the default for people looking at MP3 players - much like the Blackberry is the default device for mobile e-mail. When was the last time anyone got excited about buying an MP3 player from Samsung, SanDisk, Creative, iRiver Dell, etc. even though many of these players are as good, if not better, than the iPod?
April 9th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Make that 100 million and 1. All four of my teens have one now. The youngest wanted an MP3, but I thought it might be better in the long run for them all to have the same thing. More interchangeable that way. At least that’s my whole thought process.
Just kind of stinks that by the time the youngest of the four got his, the other three were not excited for him at all. Now we have to start something cool in reverse order. Any ideas?
April 9th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
The secret sauce for iPod is not simply the hardware but the entire iTunes support network behind it. None of the others mentioned above are offering content along with the hardware. I have the Nokia N90 — supposedly with the same hardware as the iPod Nano, yet Nokia has yet to deliver on the Loudeye acquisition last October supposedly to provide content for N-series phones.
It’s the total user experience, including the hardware’s user interface, that sums up iPod’s success.