The Financial Times (click here – premium content) asked this scandalous question on 28 June 2005. Their point was that Apple’s iPod has created a massive new market for downloadable music carried on a handheld digital device. Mobile phone designers as well as cell phone service providers have eyed this $3.5 bn industry with jealousy since it started a few years ago. Now they are jumping in, with cell phones equipped to store and play music in the same way the iPod does. Having phone, camera and video, calendar and PDA capabilities in one device makes a lot of sense, and the industry hopes to attract millions of new users. The big winners will be both the cellphone makers as well as content providers of music – something the cellphone service providers want to get in on. For iPod to maintain their leadership, they will need to keep innovating and probably add additional features to their next generation iPod
Could sixteen million iPod users be wrong?
