Compressed expansion Digital music player shipments to surge
Matthew Miller, Special Projects Editor -- CommVerge, 6/16/2003
Compressed audio is leading to an expanded market opportunity, according to a new forecast from market researcher IDC. The firm says broad consumer acceptance and a diversity of available player types will drive the worldwide market to nearly $44 billion in revenue by 2007--a 30 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over five years.
The report notes that although players based on flash memory and hard-disk drives will show impressive growth, the "other" category--encompassing devices to which manufacturers add compressed-audio handling as an additional feature--will drive future shipment and revenue growth. Examples include conventional CD players, DVD players, game consoles, and PVRs (personal video recorders), according to IDC analyst Susan Kevorkian.
IDC predicts 24 percent CAGR over the forecast period for flash-memory-based players, thanks to the declining cost-per-megabyte of flash chips. However, the report throws some cold water on what--at least according to media buzz--is currently the hottest segment: hard-disk-based players. IDC claims that the cost of hard disks will inhibit growth in the segment by keeping end-user prices above $200. That may be so, but with hard-disk capacities still rocketing upwards, buyers who are willing to part with more money will enjoy capacity sufficient to tote around their entire collections.
