News Archive for 05/04/13

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Sonance iPort division capitalizes on iPod popularity

04/13, 7:05pm

Sonance iPort division

Sonance today announced the formation of its new iPort Division. The company currently produces the high-fidelity in-wall iPort iPod interface for home entertainment systems. Sonance says the move will help it focuse on iPort as a distinct brand within the company and that it plans to capitalize on the "explosive growth and market dominance of the iPod music player." The division will have its own development, sales, and marketing team, and will be lead by company chairman and co-founder, Scott Struthers. The new division plans to introduce a full line of iPort branded product in the near future. "The tremendous response we?ve received since first showing the iPort last September has opened our eyes to a large market potential for architectural-grade iPod interfaces. iPort plans to expand its market penetration to areas such as computer integrators, commercial developers, the hospitality market, and others.

Apple Japan to launch iTunes store?

04/13, 1:25pm

iTunes Japan?

Apple Japan president Yoshiaki Sakito yesterday announced that Apple is set to launch an Internet music business in the country. In Japan, digital music services have been slow starting, hampered by rigid controls by record companies. Digital music players have recently become very popular, and iTunes in Japan will likely speed up growth of the digital music market, industry sources said. In the face of the rapid growth of the digital music market, however, Avex, a major CD production company, announced it will launch a digital music business, and other CD firms are leaning toward accepting such a move. Label Gate and Microsoft began small-scale digital music operations in Japan last year, but their offerings are not compatible with the iPod. Since April 2003, Apple has sold music through its iTunes Music Store in the United States and Europe for 99 cents, or about 107 yen, per song.

iPod dominates flash, drive markets in February

04/13, 8:45am

iPod dominates in February

Apple's iPod continues to dominate the music player market, according to TheStreet. In February, Apple's iPod accounted for nearly 90 percent of hard-drve based players sold in the US retail market, according to NPD Group. The same research group also said that the company's flash-based offering, the iPod shuffle, dominated the market with 45 percent of all unit sales in February in the US retail market. "They had a strong February," says Stephen Baker, a hardware analyst with NPD Group. "I expect them to have a pretty strong March, too." The research firm has not yet released its March data. The report says that the "halo effect" will continue to drive Mac sales--especially with the release of the Mac mini and the release of Mac OS X Tiger yesterday: "Bumping up market share by just 1 percentage point or so could add billions to the company's revenue -- and likely millions to the bottom line."