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Media (Apple) Businesses Media Apple

The Billion Dollar iPod Accessories Market 59

Posted by Zonk from the can-i-have-a-piece-of-that-pie? dept.
OleSurinam writes "The NYTimes has a story about the lucrative iPod accessories market." From the article: "Making add-ons for the iPod is a $1 billion business. Does that sound like hyperbole? Consider this. Last year, Apple sold 32 million iPods, or one every second. But for every $3 spent on an iPod, at least $1 is spent on an accessory, estimates Steve Baker, an analyst for the NPD Group, a research firm. That works out to three or four additional purchases per iPod."
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The Billion Dollar iPod Accessories Market More

The Billion Dollar iPod Accessories Market

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  • Billion Dollar Market.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by JUSTONEMORELATTE ( 584508 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @01:45PM (#14636512) Homepage
    ... and it's totally owned by Belkin.

    But I'm not complaining, I'm honestly just jealous.

  • Hyperbole (Score:4, Funny)

    by daeley ( 126313 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @01:49PM (#14636561) Homepage
    Consider this. Last year, Apple sold 32 million iPods, or one every second. But for every $3 spent on an iPod, at least $1 is spent on an accessory, estimates Steve Baker, an analyst for the NPD Group, a research firm. That works out to three or four additional purchases per iPod.

    So for every $3-seconds, there's an additional $1-second for accessories. That means about 10.6 million $1-seconds last year, which works out to a bit over 2,944 $1-hours, 122 $1-days, or about 17.5 $1-weeks!

    That means for every iPod-year, there's an iPod-accessory-quarter!!!!

    Go statistics!
    • Wouldn't that be iPod accesory third?

    • Re:Hyperbole (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Golias ( 176380 )
      The math ain't right anyway. It can't be.

      Making add-ons for the iPod is a $1 billion business. Does that sound like hyperbole? Consider this. Last year, Apple sold 32 million iPods, or one every second. But for every $3 spent on an iPod, at least $1 is spent on an accessory...

      Okay, now let's see. Accessories are a $1B business, and for every dollor spent on accessories, three dollars are spent on iPods. That makes iPods a $3B business.

      32 million iPods sold into $3B is and average price per iPod of $93.

  • Very Unlike Apple (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DorkusMasterus ( 931246 ) <dorkmaster1 AT gmail DOT com> on Friday February 03, 2006 @01:57PM (#14636620) Homepage
    This is exactly why I wonder why Apple has not become more of an "exclusive provider" for most of that stuff. Mind you, I like the idea of being able to buy a comparable-quality item on the cheap, but still... It's very unlike Apple to give away that kind of market share.

    • Re:Very Unlike Apple (Score:5, Insightful)

      by damsa ( 840364 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @02:03PM (#14636677)
      It's the same reason why Apple doesn't make cameras and printers anymore. Unless they develop inhouse it's likely that they will have to pay for licensing fees and lag behind companies that can pump out products quicker. That's why the dock connector is such genius. Apple gets a small royalty for each accessory using the dock connector without putting R&D into new products that might fail miserably.
    • I am certain that Apple is letting this industry flourish because it is selling more iPods. Want an mp3 boombox? Buy and iPod and one of those sound docks. Want tunes in the car that don't suck? Buy an FM transmitter and an iPod. Outboard battery packs make iPod use feasible on long plane rides. All these things make more people want to fund the iPod industry.

      • Re:Very Unlike Apple (Score:3, Insightful)

        by shmlco ( 594907 )
        And once you have all of those accessories, you're pretty much locked into iPod-land, otherwise you'd have to repurchase not only a new mp3 player, but also repurchase all new accessories to go with...
        • Or just start on the right foot and buy a mp3 player from the company that made the first hard drive mp3 player, the company that has patents on the integrated FM tuner, the company that's got integrated USB and SDIO expandability, the company built around open source, Neuros! Do what you will with it! Use standard devices with it, again, not that you need to given the builtin FM tuner.

          The 442v2 is going to be so god damned fscking sweet. I cannot wait. I nearly bought a GP2x; whoops! That would've bee
          • With the flip side being, of course, that there seems to be a distinct lack of Bose SoundDocks and other cool accessories for Neuros...
            • But the Bose accessories are more of an expensive status symbol than a practical way to play your iPod tunes. Why not hook it up to your stereo with a headphone to rca adapter? Actually, the iPod alone is a status symbol too...'look at me!! i'm cool cuz i have a stylish mp3 player!!'
            • Um, that was really the point I was trying to make. If you need to buy proprietary custom crafted gizmo's, you've lost. If you want a bose sound dock, get a $50 VFD display unit, $50 a USB griffin air remote, a pair of USB speakers ($100) and a USB hub ($10).
        • Not only do they make royalty for your car's head unit w/ iPod integration, they insure that one in every three will most certainly get an iPod if they dont already have one.

          Its just an enormous network externality.

          But really, if we're talking about network externalities... why not just add the network? There seems to have been a certain je ne sais pas ce qui when we introduced intercommunication to the pc. Would I be a total heretic to suggest we try exposing network interfaces to our mp3 players?
          Ian Mur

        • Re:Very Unlike Apple (Score:1, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward
          And once you have all of those accessories, you're pretty much locked into iPod-land...

          You're going to have a hard time convincing most people that that is a bad thing.

  • Lessons learned from Pixar, Disney, the Gap ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by QuatermassX ( 808146 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @02:05PM (#14636697) Homepage

    I'd like to know more about the lessons Steve learned from his time merchandising kids movies with Pixar and Disney, being on The Gap's board and the influence of Millard Drexler. The iPod ecosystem seems like an old-fashioned consumer goods story - accessories, add-ons, merchandising (I'm thinking of Star Wars et al), etc and having friendly, inviting stores in which to buy the goods. How far along would they be without those Apple Stores?

    It seems to me the New Apple's ability to actually capitalise on a successful product is chiefly due to killer merchandising plus an expanding retailing empire. And a bit of good luck!

    I'm sure this will be a case study in a business textbook one day ...

    • friendly, inviting stores in which to buy the goods.

      You find Apple stores inviting?!? I always feel like I've walked onto the set of a sequel to THX-1138 when I enter one of their ice caves. Since Apple always seems to have a handle on style above all else, I can only assume that "Early Post-Modern Soulless Dystopia" was the look they were going for, but, man! It's all like a lost verse from that Zager & Evans tune [lyricsdownload.com]...

      • Sure, they're inviting. Rows and rows of fab-looking Macs hooked up to the Internet; heaps of sexy creative women (usually with their cute boyfriends, alas); sales people on the floor who are friendly but never pushy. I like the clean - but not austere - look of the place. It encourages me to fill the space as I will ... much like the white of a blank page or canvas.

        Then again, perhaps they're a wee bit too neat-freak white, eh?

    • How far along would they be without those Apple Stores?

      Same place. I just don't believe there's enough Apple Stores to make any significant difference. Well, not yet at least!
  • But for every $3 spent on an iPod, at least $1 is spent on an accessory, estimates Steve Baker, an analyst for the NPD Group, a research firm.

    If we can measure the exact number of Ipods sold, why not the same for ipod accessories? Why this "guesstimate" from the Department Of Pulling Statistics Out Of My Ass?
    • Maybe because Apple lets everyone know exactly how many iPods are sold, but there are dozens of accessory manufacturers who don't publish their numbers. Apple doesn't even announce how many iPod accesories they sell.
      • I remember reading several articles about not being able to product ipod-compatible accessories without their explicit say-so. Something about having to break the DMCA for you to connect a new product to the device. Wouldn't they therefore be privy to the ACME company making 10k off-white carrying cases?
        • Then your memory is going. You never read any articles that said any such thing. Apple charges a fee to third party accessory makers to use the iPod name. If you want to create an accessory for the iPod, but not make any reference to the iPod in your advertising or marketing, you don't have to pay the fee.

    • Re:Hmm, problem (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03, 2006 @02:25PM (#14636904)
      As an employee of NPD, I can say that it's not a "guesstimate". We know the exact number of iPods sold because Apple chooses to release those exact numbers. That data comes from the only company that makes iPods. Do you have any idea how many companies make iPod accessories? There's no one source to get that information from. That's what NPD does... we're the "one source" for data across the entire marketplace.
  • My main gripe with accessories is that they don't work with all the numerous versions of the iPod.

    Take this example, I'm the happy owner of an iPod mini (which did not had a long life), but the great iTalk does not (and will probably never) work with the mini. See this Griffin iPod Compatibility chart [griffintechnology.com], you'll find out the huge gap in iPod accessories compatibilities. (no I don't work for griffin, I'm just making a point here, I'm pretty sure other accessories providers have the same "problem"...)
    • Griffin is actually the reason I've gone from mildly ignoring the iPod to active revulsion over the accursed device. I can accept the inexplicable bumper crop of white colored single-purpose peripherials, the profusion of morons thinking iPod was is and will be the first and only hard drive mp3 player, but watching what was formerly one of the greatest human computer interface companies in the world reduce their entire r&d to these white shiny peripherials... well... enough is enough. You've got your
    • well, incompatibility surely is one of reasons it's a billion dollar market to begin with. if half iPods were the same form factor, the sale of a third-party case would be much lower than now. (nevermind the fact the overall iPod sales would also be lower - one reason for the massive success has to be the constant updating and offering just a bit more in improved form factor and additional functionality to make the previous gen. buyers think of upgrading...)

  • I like the circular logic... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fak3r ( 917687 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @02:28PM (#14636923) Homepage
    I like the circular logic of people not wanting their precious iPods to get scratched, so they buy a case that looks like a wallet, but protects their iPod from scatches, that no one will ever see since the cool design of the iPod and the non-existant scratches will never been seen! Same logic goes for ppl that buy bras for their cars.

    My 20G iPod is scratched to hell, and it should be; I've used it daily for almost 2 years! My car has marks on the front, and it should: I've driven it for almost 2 years, will allot of highway driving!

    Don't get me started on Grecim's men's forumla or botox treatments...
    • I got an ipod nano before Xmas and was frightened by all the reports of scratched screens. A friend told me about InvisibleShield ( www.invisibleshield.com [theinvisibleshield.com]) so I ordered one. They're a bit expensive at $19.95 but it's a one-time application. My friend even had to send his ipod video into Apple under warranty and he got a replacement and IS sent him a free replacement shield (not like plastic and postage costs that much) even though it was not their fault. It changes the feel of the ipod, it's not smooth
    • You know, there are companies that make other kinds of cases [contourcase.com], for your circular logic
    • Invisibleskin retains the looks without the weird protectors. I use wide clear packing tape.

      I think the things should be made more scratch resistant in the first place. Some phone brands are known to be scratch resistant, I think it is Sanyo because my mobile phone doesn't show much wear despite over a year of use without a holster or case.
    • I use a 4G SkinTight [speckproducts.com] that has a fold-back end for the dock/connector with a PDA screen protector being the only thing between the screen and the air. My only complaint is it isn't all that skin-tight on my 20GB 4G. It's actually rather loose in every dimension, but it never actually comes off (or even close).*

      I would almost use that seemingly scratch-impervious film from 3M (marketed as other things at ridiculous markup values by other companies cashing in on the ipod accessory markup) but it would have t
    • I don't see any circular logic here. The point of putting your iPod in a case or putting a "bra" on your car's front bumper is that when that gets badly damaged, you can easily trash it (the case or "bra", that is) and buy another one.

  • The Real iPod Story... (Score:4, Funny)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @03:40PM (#14637525)
    iPod People [userfriendly.org]
  • Any time you have a status symbol that has achieved some level of mainstream success, there will be ways to customize it. Cellphones, cars, computer cases etc.

    The iPod reached the critical 'popular culture threshold' where rather than just have people create generic accessories for the portable music player market, they instead make them for the specific product because they can share in the success of it.

  • By selling WAY overpriced accessories that should be standard with the unit in the first place. $30 for an Ipod shuffle armbad which consists of .50 of materials? Gimme a farking break.

    Vendors just have to love the Ipod market. Where else outside of BOSE stores can you rape consumers without a care in the world knowing that they won't ever complain about how overpriced your junk is? Every time I see an official Ipod sock being sold for $29 I want to pull if out of the box and light it on fire. Then I'd give

    • yeah, screw free trade. (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yeesh, someone's never heard of the free market, eh? Don't get me wrong -- I own no $29 iPod socks. But I have no malice toward apple for making such a thing available for exchange.

      "Damn the waffle-cone vendor for his $4 outrageously priced airy delights, whose value is scarcely greater than the cost of the goods: 25 cents. Damn him for selling them to all those volunteering customers! If only they knew the TRUE (my) value of waffle-cones."

      Free trade -- founded on the twin principles that everyone ascri

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