The Financial Times is the latest mainstream news outlet to publish something about Apple’s iPod. The London newspaper took a broad look at the market Apple dominates in an article called "Kids happy to get an Apple in their stocking." The article doesn’t break any ground in the news department, but is a continuation of the mainstream chorus singing a very positive tune about Apple. From the article:
There are several reasons why MP3s are on many shopping lists this Christmas. With only 13 per cent of US households having a digital music player as of June, the MP3 player market is virtually untapped. And they are much more reasonably priced than notebook computers or flat screen TVs.
Then there is Apple, which launched the MP3 fad with the release of the first iPod in late 2001. That fad is now turning into a frenzy fuelled by hot new models and a cool marketing campaign.
Some analysts forecast that consumers will snap up as many as 4m iPods this holiday season. That would be a staggering haul considering that it took Apple about three years to sell its first 5.7m iPods.
There is more in the full article at the Financial Times’ Web site.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Again, this article doesn’t break open any hot news, though we found the factoid about how many households have music player to be interesting. The main reason we point you to this article today is simply because from a broad perspective, all of this positive news coverage about Apple is very important.
Not only does it help sell iPods, we believe that every positive article about Apple’s iPod helps change perceptions about the rest of Apple’s product line, including the Mac. While many, including several Wall Street analysts, have talked about the iPod Halo Effect, the truth is that we haven’t yet actually seen that effect actually boost Mac sales. In time, however, we think that it will, and each of these articles will help to that end.