Why the iPod can be conquered

Richard Siklos at Fortune Magazine tackles an increasingly common point of view: That Apple's dominance of the digital media market could be quite temporary, thanks to the company's arrogance, poor relations with partners, and utter disregard for customers (contrary to its carefully honed marketing):

That last bit is hypocrisy on Apple's part, since they don't actually engage in one-size-fits-all pricing at all, in the iTunes Store or elsewhere. I think what Apple is really demanding is one-size-fits-all pricing from its content partners. The company feels free, however, to charge consumers whatever they feel like. This distinction is somehow lost on a lot of people who blindly defend the company at all costs. Anyway...

Interesting. This is something that Mac fans like to point to: Because the machine's market penetration in the US (~ 5 percent) is much higher than it is worldwide (~ 2.4 percent), they prefer to focus on that. There's no surprise that sales of Apple's expensive devices--whether they're computers or portable electronics--is much higher in the US than elsewhere. We're the richest country on earth. (Put differently, Americans are more likely to spend money on "stuff" than those from other nations, whether they can afford it or not. Gotta keep that economy rolling, people.)

Which makes sense. iPods are gadgets, not must-have tools like PCs and phones. This explains, of course, why Apple is betting on the iPhone.

The repeat buyer thing is interesting. As a reviewer, I've owned at least one copy of every iPod has ever made, but the reality is that I'm a serious iPod fan and user as well, and I would have 9and have) purchased several of these devices for myself and others regardless. In this way, the pure number of devices sold is somewhat meaningless: Every Zune sale is a sale to a new user at this point, while the same cannot be said of iPod owners. In fact, the Mac market was sustained for several years by nothing other than repeat buyers. My guess is that a good percentage of iPod owners (again, especially in the US) upgrade every year or two. This is one of those interesting conditions that's hard to measure or evaluate. But it's clearly part of the equation.