Thoughts and Ideas

No-one will contest a statement placing Apple’s iPod as the dominant mp3/portable media player on the market. However, there are several companies trying to dethrone Apple.

Sandisk has just announced a partnership with BestBuy and Real to produce and market a Rhapsody branded version of their Sansa portable media player. Acknowledged by many as the #1 iPod competitor, the Sansa is a flash-memory based device priced and positioned very close to the iPod Nano.

BestBuy makes razor-thin margins on sales of the iPod. They attempt to sell accessories and service plans to make up for this, but more often than not, an iPod sale is barely profitable for the retail giant. If BestBuy has negotiated a favorable amount of margin on these players, expect this player/service combination to be the first option a sales person will present to a perspective iPod purchaser. While I’m not sure what percentage of iPod sales are provided by BestBuy, this is sure to impact iPod sales #s.

Microsoft’s entry into the PMP (portable media player) market is the Zune. Banking on the popularity and buzz-worthiness of social networking, Microsoft hopes to engage the college-aged consumer. Unfortunately, using a feature that requires a certain amount of market saturation to be viable as your main differentiator between the market leader isn’t wise. I expect Microsoft will see moderate success, but will not, on its own, eliminate Apple’s dominance in this market.

This may be the first time, in a long time, that Apple sees any real competition for market share in this arena. Considering there are two new players with some big-name backing, it should be a fun holiday season to watch.

This, of course, is GREAT for the consumer because it encourages Apple to lower prices, add new features, and pay close attention to user feedback. What is your next move Apple?
On a side note, it is important to remember that the consumers and retailers don’t always immediate realize a good thing when it presents itself.

So, I’ve begun this blog using Wordpress. I have to admit that I’m very impressed with the feature-set it offers. If you are looking for a customizable and powerful content management platform for your site, I highly recommend it.

I’ve recently been debating on what I should do with my personal web site, bendalton.com. Vacillating between a portfolio site, a blog, a place to conduct business, and so forth, I’ve finally decided that I would like to write a bit.

Expect this site to contain a wide variety of posts ranging from some personal information to business strategy in the ‘Web 2.0′ world. Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions.

Thank you.