Digital Home Thoughts: C|NET: "Apple's 800-pound White Gorilla, Beware"

"Enter practically any electronics store and you're likely to find a digital music player from Apple Computer. The iPod weighs only a few ounces, but to its competitors it's the 800-pound white gorilla. It is hardly a secret that Apple's smart, sleek music players rule the market. Industry analysts estimate that more than 9 of every 10 high-capacity players sold in the United States are iPods. "It's hard to imagine it doing much better than it is doing now," said Stephen Baker, director of industry analysis for the NPD, a research firm. But drawing parallels to the early days of the personal computer industry, he added that Apple's lead is far from insurmountable."

At some point Apple is going to face market share loss, or a general "calming" in sales as competition grows. What the iPod has going for it right now isn't technical superiority but brand awareness and a staggering cult status. Everyone knows what an iPod is. Few people outside the gadget geek community know what a Creative Zen Micro is. That more than anything else gives the iPod such phenomenal success. If the iPod gradually becomes a generic term for a product category; like Kleenex, BandAid, or PalmPilot, then more non-Apple branded digital media players will become increasingly popular.

Off-topic: My girlfriend likes to watch The View, a daytime talk show hosted by a group of celebrity females. I jokingly refer to it as The Estrogen roundtable. She Tivo'd an episode from earlier this week in which the hosts gave free iPods away to every member of the audience. You should have seen the insane reaction from the crowd. They went absolutely crazy! 8O