The Global Portable Media Player Industry

Résumé du document

A portable media player (PMP) is an electronic device that allows the owner to store, organize and play audio files as well as to view images and videos. The data is usually stored on a hard drive or a flash memory, enabling the storage of all kinds of files as on a USB flash drive. The PMP can be connected to a computer with a USB or FireWire connector, or via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi link.
The worldwide leader on this industry is clearly Apple with the iPod (around 70% of market share in US). SanDisk is the direct challenger, even though it is far from catching up with Apple with around 17% of market share in US. Then come Creative, Microsoft and Samsung which together own around 10% of the US market. Finally we find a half-dozen of outsiders, as iRiver, Philips, Neonumeric, Archos, Sony, Meizu and Cowon, sharing the remaining 3% of the US market.
It is difficult to have precise global figures but the US' trend is representative of the global market; except in China where Apple is not the leader but second after Samsung.
According to the Standard Industrial Classification, the PMPs belong to the household audio and video equipment industry (SIC 3651).

Extraits

[...] Companies compete primarily on the basis of product innovation, quality and variety, timing of product releases, and effectiveness of distribution and marketing. As innovation is one of the key success factors, I have decided to introduce the R&D and innovation part. The data above show the part of the R&D in percentage of total sales for the five major players on the PMP industry. In average, companies spend over 10% of their revenue in R&D. This figure is general because it is not possible to compute the part relative to the PMP activity. [...]

[...] So this crisis is likely to affect the PMP industry. [...]

[...] This substitution risk is mainly the reason why competitors diversify their activities as seen in the major players' analysis. On this point, it is important to underline that companies can choose to follow the limits to develop new products (as Apple launching the iPhone) or can consolidate their position on their main business activity. Lastly, the actual economic crisis will also limit the growth of the industry because when the buying power of household decreases, the consumption of high technology products decreases as well. [...]

[...] Apple) or mobile phones (e.g. Samsung) and they use the innovations discovered in these areas to improve their PMPs. Players in the Industry Apple, SanDisk, Creative, Microsoft and Samsung represent over 97% of the PMP industry. This is why I will only speak about these five companies as the players in this industry. This table shows that there is no minimum efficient size in this industry because the companies have workforces ranging from 3,000 to 138,000 persons and their total assets vary from $77 million to $72 billion. [...]

[...] The worldwide leader on this industry is clearly Apple with the iPod (around 70% of market share in US). SanDisk is the direct challenger, even though it is far from catching up with Apple with around 17% of market share in US. Then come Creative, Microsoft and Samsung[1] which together own around 10% of the US market. Finally we find a half-dozen of outsiders, as iRiver, Philips, Neonumeric, Archos, Sony, Meizu and Cowon, sharing the remaining of the US market. [...]