TAIPEI (Reuters) – Global sales of portable digital music players are expected to rise significantly this year, the world’s second-largest manufacturer of MP3 players said on Tuesday.
“This market is booming rapidly and one of the reasons why MP3s are so popular is that they are becoming cheaper,” said Tommy Tsai, a product marketing manager at Creative Technology Ltd.’s Taiwan branch.
Tsai, citing estimates from market research firm IDC, told a seminar in Taipei that Creative and its rivals, including South Korea (news – web sites)’s Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and U.S.-based Apple Computer Inc., would collectively sell 35 million portable flash MP3 players in 2005, compared with 25 million in 2004.
Apple is the leader in the mini hard disk-drive (HDD) music player market, with a roughly 60 to 70 percent share, following the success of its market-leading iPod, which can store tens of thousands of songs, compared with hundreds for regular MP3 players.
But Samsung and Creative together hold 13 percent of the global market share in the fast-growing segment that uses flash memory chips, Tsai said.
Singapore-based Creative estimated last week that revenue in the last quarter had risen 45 percent from a year earlier. Tsai gave no 2005 sales or output estimates for the company.
Seeking to capitalize on the high-growth market, Apple moved earlier this month to offer more affordable products by introducing the gum-stick size iPod Shuffle, with 512 megabytes of memory, for US$99.
The price is similar to that of rivals.
Smaller companies in Taiwan are also offering their own products.
BenQ Corp. has launched MP3 players under its brand, as part of an effort to boost thin contracting margins for its core business in computer manufacturing. BenQ also makes mobile phones and flat-screen monitors and televisions.
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