A recent report by Business Week says that analysts' belief that Apple commands 25% of the global digital audio player market may be overblown
Business Week has posted an interesting article about Apple’s iPod and market share this week. It states that while Apple says the iPod can claim from 40% to 50% of the market share of digital audio players, the iPod’s global market share may actually fall well below the 25% mark.
According to the article, very little good data exists on international sales of consumer electronics — digital-music players included. With the exception of Japan, information out of Asia is sketchy. By some estimates the Chinese market for digital-music players hit 1.8 million units in 2003, but given the chaotic nature of the Middle Kingdom’s economy, that number could well fall short. Good sales data in Latin America, Eastern Europe, India, South Korea, and Taiwan remain hard to come by.
So companies put together piecemeal estimates of their global market share. And they rely on information collected by researchers such as NPD Group, which tracks U.S. retail sales of consumer electronics.
Read the rest of the article at Business Week.
