Charles on… anything that comes along

What can one say about Engadget’s report that 92% of new hard drive-based MP3 players sold are iPods except that it’s really interesting to see the Microsoft anti-marketing machine cranking up on this one: calling the iTunes store a “closed” format (which is true, but kinda irrelevant; on that basis Microsoft should open Windows up a la Linux) and that WMA gives people “choice”. True, it does, but it’s just that people have chosen not to choose that choice.

Tough on Microsoft, tough on the causes of Microsoft.

Update Thurs 12noon: Look, can anyone actually find this NPD report online?? I’ve had a look at the company website and drawn a blank. No search box (a usability no-no), and the iPod report isn’t there under any category - not even a summary, which is all I would expect.

What I’m wondering is whether this “92%” figure is for volume or price. Even if it’s the latter, Apple still have incredible dominance here. Even with the data point of having a 41% share over the overall market, it’s not clear. If flash-based players (which are much cheaper) outsell hard drive-based ones by many times, it could still be price or volume that’s the baseline.
This is the sort of omission from a release that makes for really lousy work, actually. Volume or price is an important distinction in any sales ranking of competing products. And NPD’s site really isn’t helping either.

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• Steve Wildstrom gets it wrong - unusually - on the iPod vs WMA (9 November 2004; score: 67.86%)
• Mobiles vs iPods: in time you will listen to your MP3s on one device... (30 September 2005; score: 61.16%)
• Is everyone going to buy last night's Apple shares back now? (10 March 2005; score: 48.91%)