Here’s a question you think you know the answer to, but probably don’t. Which company sells the most portable music players?



Silly question, you probably think, it’s Apple of course. Well, actually it isn’t. In fact, in the last quarter, Nokia sold 15 million music enabled phones, which is approximately twice the number of iPods sold.


Still, Apple has the perceived leadership, and in any case its iPod products are purely for playing music. Nokia is selling hybrid products which just happen to include music abilities. So, it would perhaps be a misleading statement to say Nokia is the genuine market leader.


But then yesterday came news that the mobile phone company has forked out $60 million to buy Loudeye Corp, which distributes 1.6 million music tracks across 20 or so countries. In fact, it has the biggest music catalogue in the world - or so say some press reports.

Follow up:

And now the catalogue is Nokia’s. So, maybe then for Apple, it’s over. Maybe the battle is already lost.


On the other hand Apple of course is - in. The iPod is a fashion accessory. It’s a must have product, and Nokia has joined a long list of companies trying to wrest control from Apple. Up to now these would be contenders have been no more than ‘also rans.’


But for us, Apple’s big strength with this product is perhaps its weakness too. Fashions come and go, and any company that relies on the fashionable strength of a product is walking precariously. Just as the iPod went from nowhere to become so popular, equally this process can work in reverse.


Talking of fashion, apparently music playing abilities is the big thing in the mobile phone world at the moment. Last year it was cameras, and once upon time, they were popular for making calls. Next year they say it will be video, but for now, music on mobile is the big thing. […]


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