Tuesday, June 21, 2005

According to a report released by market research firm In-Stat on Tuesday, Apple sold 8.4 million iPods in 2004 and captured a market share of more than 30 percent.

Apple blurs sales figures of the individual iPod products, so it was not clear how successful certain products are. According to recent media reports, for example on AppleInsider.com, iPod Shuffle sales are much slower than expected and are likely to even affect overall price levels of NAND Flash. Analysts at Goldman Sachs said that it expects sales for all iPods to be flat this quarter, other sources claim that sales are declining for the first time since the product's introduction in 2001.

Stephanie Guza, an analyst with In-Stat, is more optimistic and expects that the market share of the iPod has climbed above the 30.2 percent level in the first half of 2005. According to Guza, Apple's advantage is still the iPod brand. "What you see is a 'Kleenex' effect. The iPod name is anonymous for portable player."