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Amsterdam (pte053/16.03.2005/16:30) - Sales of portable digital music players are set to rise 57 per cent this year after more than doubling, according to results of a global survey by market research iSuppli http://www.isuppli.com . Over the next five years, shipments of MP3 music players will expand from 36.8 million in 2004 to 132 million units in 2009, the company said. Shipments of MP3 players rose by 116 per cent in 2004.
The majority of current media players use flash memory chips to store limited amounts of music, but there will be more players with higher storage capacity as a result of small in-built hard disk drives, or HDDs. According to the research group, electronics producers stand to benefit from consumers' willingness to pay more for "cool" products, which Apple has exploited and which Sony is targeting with its new range of Walkmans. "Initially, the iPod was quite expensive, but the company reduced prices when the competition arrived," said iSuppli. "It also has aggressively introduced many generations of products in quick succession over the past four years."
According to iSuppli, companies should not try to squeeze too many features into their products. "The so-called "Swiss Army Knife" approach has not succeeded in the MP3 market," said the company. "Simple, elegant products that perform a few functions with easy-to-use interfaces have sold well in the market place, while the do-everything approach has failed," it added.
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