David Becker
Gear

Next Stop for iPod--500 Million Units

A total of 100 million iPods in circulation? "Big woop!" says a certain stock analyst, who calculates that Apple can easily sell half a billion media players before the market is saturated. JMP Securities analyst Ingrid Ebeling said in a recent report that Apple is on pace to eclipse Sony’s earlier success with the Walkman. […]

A total of 100 million iPods in circulation? "Big woop!" says a certain stock analyst, who calculates that Apple can easily sell half a billion media players before the market is saturated.Cowpod_00

JMP Securities analyst Ingrid Ebeling said in a recent report that Apple is on pace to eclipse Sony's earlier success with the Walkman.

During Sony’s 15-year reign with the Walkman, the company sold over 350 million units, and we believe that Apple’s addressable market over time will exceed this number given the upgrade and replaceable nature of iPods as well as the overriding trend of consumers’ increasing use of digital media...The net takeaway is that this is a product category that is far from saturated, and we believe well over 500 million units will be sold before the product category hits maturation.

Apple's iPod to hit half-billion sales mark before cool-off[AppleInsider]