After the original Apple iPhone came along, all the world’s capabilities ended up in one place: Your smartphone. There’s nothing exactly wrong with it as things have become more convenient than ever but the market for dedicated devices surely has suffered. Be it game consoles, point-and-shoot cameras, PDAs, or pocket computers, all have seen their sales slide.
Music player market has also suffered terribly, seeing a third of its market vanish over the past 12 months according to an NPD report. The reason for that is simple: the music player is everywhere. Smartphones, tablets or smartwatches, you name it. All come with one.
Apple’s iPod still leads the pack by capturing 72% of all the market share but even it has seen the sales decline. What’s even worrying is that the product which brought Apple to where it belongs now is now seeing a question mark over its future. Still, don’t expect it to be axed anytime soon.
However, the report does say that the iPod Classic – which was last updated in 2009 and is the only hard-disk based iPod left – might see a revival given the fact that it comes with twice the storage found in the largest-capacity iPhone and the recent trend in favour of high-quality audio.
iPod nano and shuffle are also favourable since both come much, much cheaper than any of the iPhones, while also being lighter.
It’s interesting to see any non Apple devices not mentioned for comparison. Creative, Sansa are a few names that have produced rock solid music players.