End of the iPod? You must be joking!

Stephen Withers
Friday, 18 September 2009 11:32

Opinion and Analysis

Why are iPhones so popular? One reason seems to be that they are essentially iPods that can be used to make phone calls, versus phones that can be used as media players.

My experience with the latter is that they are too much trouble, whereas the iPod-style synchronisation with iTunes makes life easy. Other people clearly agree, as prior to the iPhone's availability here it wasn't unusual to see people carrying an iPod as well as a late model Samsung or LG phone.

Another reason is the growing use of mobile data, whether that's Wi-Fi or 3G/GPRS, and the plentiful supply of good, cheap applications from the App Store. Both encourage the adoption of the iPhone and iPod touch.

To buy those apps, you need an iTunes Store account. Now tell me, exactly how is that going to harm music sales, other than the obvious point that if you've got $10 to spend and you buy a $5 app, that only leaves $5 to potentially spend on music.

But who is to say that this is were the substitution occurs? Maybe music comes out of one (psychological if not actual) budget, and spending on apps from another?

Anyway, let's look at Apple's filings for the last three years. Net sales of "other music related products and services" (mostly content sold through the iTunes Store) increased by 34% from 2007 to 2008, and by 32 percent from 2006 to 2007.

So maybe we should wait for the 2009 numbers (which should appear next month) before worrying that content sales are slowing.

The "end of the iPod era"? Not yet, my friend, not yet.