iLounge

Following his second MP3 player retail recommendation survey, Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster says that Apple is easily holding its ground in U.S. retail stores, with iPod mindshare rising when it comes to high end devices. Like the first survey in June, Munster collected recommendations from reps at 50 non-Apple retail stores such as Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, and Fry’s Electronics about what portable digital audio devices they recommend to customers and why.

“In our Nov-05 retail survey, 68% of sales reps recommend purchase of an iPod or nano vs. any other portable audio device priced over $150. This is up from 63% of salespeople that recommended purchase of an iPod or mini in Jun-05,” Munster writes in a research noted provided to iLounge. “In the low end category, we saw iPod mindshare fall from 52% in Jun-05 to 38% in Nov-05. We believe this change is the result of 2 key items: 1) with the Nov-05 survey we changed the survey question to include only the shuffle on the low end vs. the shuffle and the 4GB mini in the Jun-05 survey, and 2) we believe the nano is stealing some mindshare from the shuffle within the iPod family.”

Munster said that the most common reasons given by MP3 player sales reps on why they recommend iPods are: video capability, ease of use, and a large assortment of accessories. Conversely, the analyst said that those who don’t recommend iPods point to two missing features—an FM radio tuner and screen (vs. iPod shuffle with no screen).