C/M/273. IPod: the Product and Market Study

The iPod music player is one of Apple Corporations most successful products ever. In 2005, the iPod sales increased by 220% over the year 2004. The company says it has shipped over 30 million gadgets so far with the demand rising steadily. The paper looks at the iPod as a product and tries to understand the reasons behind its immense success. The digital music market is also scrutinised in the paper with the author revealing its major characteristics, such as supply and demand conditions, price and income elasticity levels, market type in terms of competition (monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition etc), bases of competition, product differentiation and so on. The essay concludes with the outlook on the potential ways of the digital music and gadget market development and with the consideration of new entrants that might endanger the iPods market position in the longer run.