Even though MP3 players have been around for quite some time, the sales figures still haven’t reached their peak. It is safe to say that the market penetration of MP3-able products has been steady but slow. But now it seems that digitally compressed, and possibly digitally distributed or shared, music is an acceptable media and the consumers are realizing its full potential.
Headset CD/MP3 player sales continue to rise in the triple digits, which helps push the audio category as well. In June, unit sales were up 202 percent, compared to the same period in 2002, to total sales of 547,000 units and dollar sales were up 104 percent to a total of $27 million.
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"The growth in MP3 has been monumental in 2003, with it clearly being a purchase criteria for consumers seeking on the go audio," said Sean Wargo, director of industry analysis. "The great news is that this trend has only just begun, now that the format is moving into the mainstream with the new profit based online music services."Music Industry News Network
Uses 3" mini-cds, sounds wonderful, and it's so small it will fit easily in your shirt pocket.
MP3 only! (or mini red-book cd if I want to make any). I have no need or desire for Sony's expensive memory sticks. NO pesky DRM-crippled wma file trash! The discs, at 185 --> 200 MB each, can easily hold 3 full downloaded albums, which I get FREE from P2P.
That's what's driving the sales of these units - free mp3s and self-made rips converted to mp3. (Not any proprietary stuff). And yes, tinfoil, I feel very very sorry for anyone who didn't read the fine print and went out and bought a stooopid DRM-inhibited device. If it is indeed a 'trend', I'm not falling for it for one second.
-- Mike --
