According to the NPD Group’s latest report on United States digital music player sales, Apple’s iPod won a 75.6% market share for the second quarter of 2006 – more than 65% higher than its closest competitor, SanDisk, which had a 9.7% share for the quarter. Competitors Creative Labs, Samsung, and Sony all came in at less than half SanDisk’s share, with Creative at 4.3%, Samsung at 2.5% and Sony at 1.9%. NPD analyst Ross Rubin attributed the iPod’s success to advertising, and suggested that the iPod and other dedicated digital music players will continue to maintain competitive against music-ready mobile phones based on their superior capacities, interfaces, integration with music download services, and DRM support. [via Macworld UK]
Jeremy Horwitz was the Editor-in-Chief at iLounge. He has written over 5,000 articles and reviews for the website and is one of the most respected members of the Apple media. Horwitz has been following Apple since the release of the original iPod in 2001. He was one of the first reviewers to receive a pre-release unit of the device, and his review helped put iLounge on the map as a go-to source for Apple news.