JupiterResearch: iPod economy

Michael Gartenberg comments about a The New York Times article about the iPod ecosystem at the Jupiter Analyst Weblogs. Gartenberg posts:

As we've said in the past, despite a higher average price than competing hard drive portable music players, the iPod has experienced phenomenal sales. The success of the product created a positive feedback loop that benefits Apple, but detracts from opportunities for competitors to make gains in the portable music market. After wowing consumers with innovative marketing campaigns and eye-catching aesthetics, a series of products supporting the iPod line of products abounded. From home listening docks to car-ready broadcasting systems, Apple successfully created an empire of peripherals. The dominance of the iPod and the availability of third-party products will convince consumers that the iPod is the best possible choice in the portable music player market, so much so that it now appears that consumer perception does not allow for substitutes. Like Windows, the majority of peripheral devices and third-party applications work with the Apple iPod and not with competing players. The availability of choice eventually erodes, as no other player looks quite like the iPod or works with as many secondary tools.