Electronics Manufacturing News

Worldwide unit shipments of portable audio players (HDD and solid-state) will reach 104 million units in 2009, up from 27.8 million units in 2004, representing a CAGR of 30 .2% between 2004 and 2009. Drivers for this booming market include falling prices, the availability of legitimate subscription and pay-per-download online music sites, smaller hard disk drives, and increasing Flash memory capacities. Due to increased competition, vendors are striving to differentiate products by offering a wide range of price points, memory capacities and features. As a result, we will see further segmentation in the portable audio player market.

The hard disk drive (HDD) digital audio player segment is sub-divided into two categories: the microdrive segment and the 1.8-inch segment. In addition, the Flash-based MP3 player market is examined by two segments: the less than 1 GB Flash-based players and the 1 GB or more Flash-based players. It is believed the Flash-based MP3 players will lead in unit shipments, but HDD player sales are driving revenue growth.

This latest report, Portable Digital Audio Players: Moving to the Beat of a Booming Market includes results of a consumer survey about MP3 player ownership, profiles of leading portable audio player manufacturers and suppliers as well as forecasts for portable audio player shipments and revenue.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c25069

Laura Wood
Senior Manager
Research and Markets
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