I use a Macbook for both my personal and professional computing needs. I also happen to own an iPod Shuffle (for treadmill running) and a 5th generation harddisk-based iPod.
So am I an Apple fanboy? Well, maybe not.
But I am always interested in talking about what I see is Apple’s stranglehold on the portable music/media player market. At least in the US.
I am in Las Vegas this week doing booth duty at the Consumer Electronics Show. This morning, I shared a cab with a young lady who worked on PR for iRiver.
For the uninitiated, iRiver used to be a HUGE player in the MP3 player market. I used to own one myself in the day. They’re a Korean-based company and apparently has a new CEO who is trying again to make the company count in the US market.
So, can iRiver be successful?
I am not sure.
Here is why:
Apple has an end to end solution for consumers. They not only sell pretty nifty and cool-looking players. They also provide the content and a very seamless way of moving that content to the players.
No other MP3/media player company has that. Microsoft has been trying hard. The Zunes is yet another attempt at providing that end-to-end solution.
But let’s look at it this way: if you have already spent a couple of hundred bucks on purchases from the iTunes store, are you going to switch to another player which cannot play any of that content? Probably not, unless your taste in music has dramatically changed.
So Apple has, in effect, locked their customers in by making it costly to switch over to competitors’ products.
The other challenge is the number of accessories that are available for the iPods. Everywhere you go at CES, you see cases, speakers, chargers, cables for the iPods.
Look at Pinnacle for example. They have this really cool product that grabs video, digitizes the video and pushes that out to your iPod. All without needing a PC. The gadget automatically detects the iPod and formats the video to fit the small iPod screen. It’s still really something for the hardcore geek. But the fact that iPod compability is part of the feature set adds to the impression(in the consumer’s eyes) that an iPod is the one to get if you want compatibility with really interesting third party products.
So yeah, companies like iRiver, Creative Labs and Sandisk are trying hard to get some of that market share from Apple. But the iTunes lock-in and the shear volume of really interesting third-party products for the iPod just make switching away from an iPod so much more difficult.