How much can competition affect Apple in the Digital Music Market?

How much can competition affect Apple in the Digital Music Market?

Apple practically ignited the digital music player market when it entered the field with their awesome looking player named iPod. It has come a long way since then. Apple has sold millions of iPods and even larger number of songs on their iTunes music store. So much so that they practically dominate the market with around 70% market share in the digital music player segment.

With this achievement, they seemed to attract the attention of quite formidable competition from Microsoft to Sony to Creative. Everyone seems to be gunning towards the Macintosh maker, which has since than entered the budget segment for the first time with their Mac Mini computer.

However, market analysts say that in spite of all kind of competition entering the market… Apple still has a winner in their hands. Digital music player market is booming but is still quite immature. Hardly 1% of the world’s population have had access to this kind of device. This means that a large market still remain untapped.

If the competition manages to make a mark in this field, it would simply add to the numbers Apple is already accumulating. Apple shares have taken a dip in the recent days with Sony entering their Walkman brand of Mobile Phones in this category with the capabilities of playing music. Apple on their part has been continuously enhancing their iPod range of players with increased memory and feature set.

However, they still have to worry about their iTunes music store. Their iPod is bound to iTunes, which makes it tough for iPod users to move to other brands. However, as other music devices become popular, it would mean good news for the alternative music stores. Here, apple would have to take care of keeping their iPod users loyal to the Apple brand and stick to their products.