iPod popularity and geography

Ted Todorov · 03-10-2004, 12:40 PM

Walking around New York City that last month or two I've noticed something remarkable: Over 60% of the portable music players are iPods. Now just to be clear, I'm not talking iPods vs. Rios or other MP3 players. I am talking iPod's vs. ANY portable player (most commonly portable CD players). And obviously the most common way to distinguish is the earphones, so in that 40% of non-iPod users I am counting any iPod users who have switched from the Apple earbuds to something else...

Now simply looking at the number of iPods that Apple has sold vs. the vast installed user base other portable music players will tell you that this can't be the same everywhere.

Am I witnessing some weird geographically based phenomenon? Or is it that 95% of the iPods are in active use, while 95% of all other portable music players are in a drawer gathering dust?

What do you guys think?

Ted

Jon.M · 03-10-2004, 01:45 PM

My "legacy" iPod currently gathers dust in the drawer. Instead, I take my Mini everywhere now.

I see a lot of iPods in Chicago and San Francisco...the two places I spend the bulk of my time.

David_Stein · 03-10-2004, 01:52 PM

i see a ton of ipods on campus, and for the life of me i cant understand how people can stand to use the included headphones. not only do they suck, but if i were looking for someone to mug, i would certainly just wait to see the telltale white wires because you would be gauranteed a pretty good take.

Anthony Hom · 03-10-2004, 03:05 PM

I rarely use the white headphones with my iPod, so people can't tell I'm using an Ipod unless I take it out to look at the display. Even then, I'm discrete when I do that.

Garrett Lundy · 03-10-2004, 05:27 PM

Agreed. I don't know anyone personally who uses the crappy white earbuds.

You think somebody would market white headphones to sell to people.

**HTF Ads**

Kenny Goldin · 03-10-2004, 08:32 PM

What are some good headphone rec's you guys? I'm not talking thigs that cost hundreds of $$$ like those Bose noise cancelling ones but something under say $50 that is still small and will wow me.

David_Stein · 03-10-2004, 09:13 PM

i use the koss ksc50 (they may be the 55 though, i cant remember). they are small and are the "over the ear" style, which i like for portables. they are leagues ahead of the ipod headphones and better than the old sony "over the ear" headphones i used to use. unfortunately, at the point where the wires split (about a foot from the actual headphone itself) it doesnt seem to be too sturdy. i need to figure otu someway to keep the wires from pulling apart.

Garrett Lundy · 03-11-2004, 07:40 AM

I needed lightweight so I just bought a pair of $9 Sony headphones. (model mdr-w08)

But my iPod is normally hooked up to my HT via Radio Shack mini-plug to stereo plug cable.

GlennH · 03-11-2004, 11:32 AM

CNet.com has information about headphones featured on their main page today.