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It's the start of a new year, and corporations are announcing their plans for 2006. Apple casually prepares for their upcoming MacWorld, scheduled for next week, but rivals of the mighty iPod are hard at work in promoting their upcoming DAPs - digital audio players - to grab a slice of the pie that Apple holds largely by themselves.

The competition is fierce in the realm of music players, which is reportedly a $4.5 billion market. Apple's market share of 75 to 80 percent has the envy of both small and large corporations, from Creative Labs and iRiver to Sony and Microsoft. But is there need for concern at Apple Corp? Will 2006 see a drop in Apple's market share with the advent of many new players by a slew of competitors?

Not really, because the competition doesn't quite "get it" - they know what technology is about, but Apple has the advantage of knowing what humans are about. It's not the incredible head start that will keep Apple ahead in this race, but their complete understanding of human nature and their ability to create products that express this principle.

When explaining why Microsoft believes they will take a share out of the iTunes market with their new Windows Media Player, Kevin Unangst, a director at Microsoft's Windows Digital Media Division, said the following:

You can get more flexibility and not lock people in ... but give people the choice to work with 75 different devices and mobile phones
- Source

The same mistake was made by Creative Labs, when they decided that "more is better" - and then I'm talking about more different devices, not more features.

So why is that a problem, a mistake even?

First of all, humans are interested in their devices and gadgets, but they are not too interested. When given the choice between 25 different music players, they're forced to spend extra time and energy on figuring out which one suits their needs best. Not only is it costly to go through 25 products rather than 5, but it also means you have to pay extra attention to spot the tiny differences between each product.

And that's just for one company alone: Creative Labs. Kevin Unangst spoke of 75 different players - completely failing to realize that people don't want to compare 75 products to find the one (and only one) they need. Having a large variety of options to choose from is great for only a small amount of people, the majority just wants a player that does what they need it to do and quickly be done with it. They don't want to spend hours comparing the differences between the Zen Sleek and Zen Micro, or the iRiver iFP 800 and the iFP 900 (who comes up with these names, anyway?).

Apple makes it easy for the consumer, in every part of the process. You have four iPods to choose from (the iPod Mini, while discontinued, is still largely available in Apple Stores, especially in combination with student discounts) and each comes with iTunes, which makes ripping your music collection and putting it on your iPod a completely painless and quick task. People don't have to think too long and hard about which iPod suits them best, and it's much easier to have an overview between four items than it is with 75.

Some people will point out that competing devices offer "more features for less money," but several of these claims are poorly based. Especially now that Creative Labs is putting their players on the market for higher prices, the "more for less money" comparison no longer applies. These people will also tell you about extra features that the iPods don't have, such as FM Radio and wider support for audio and video formats (where applicable), but iPod users who want FM Radio are perfectly happy with purchasing the extra accessory for it.

Because the iPod is relatively poor in features, it has given accessories-developers the chance to offer these additional features for those who desire them. They have a larger market while only focusing on the iPod than they could ever have with competing players, especially when the competition eliminates the need for their accessories. With over a thousand iPod accessories available today, people who are truly looking for more than just the iPod alone have more than enough to choose from, and they certainly don't have to switch to a competing device for it.

In the end, companies like Creative Labs and Sony will likely see their products gain some market share, but it is questionable that it will come out of Apple's part of the pie. More likely is that even more small companies will pull out in defeat, leaving their slice up for grabs. Only time will tell.

Originally posted on faruk.newsvine.com

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