Digital Audio Player Market is Booming

In-Stat Reports Booming Digital Audio Player Market Tops $4.5 Billion

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.,June 21, 2005 — The exploding market for both hard disk drive and Flash-based portable audio players is expected to reach more than 104 million units by 2009, up from 27.8 million units in 2004, reports In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). Drivers for this booming market include falling prices, the availability of legitimate subscription and pay-per-download online music sites, smaller hard disk drives and increasing Flash memory capacities.

“As competition heats up, vendors are striving to differentiate products by offering a wide range of price points, memory capacities and features,” said Stephanie Guza, In-Stat analyst. “As a result, we are seeing increased segmentation. For example, the hard disk drive (HDD) digital audio player segment can be subdivided into two categories: the 1-inch or smaller segment and the 1.8-inch segment.”

A recent report by In-Stat found the following:

— Revenue for both HDD and Flash-based MP3 players reached approximately $4.5 billion, a remarkable increase of almost 200% over 2003.

— Apple is the leader in worldwide portable audio players with 30.2% of the combined HDD and Flash-based portable audio player market.

— Other leading vendors include Rio, iRiver and Creative.

— In-Stat expects that 1GB capacity or greater Flash MP3 players will represent just over 20% of all Flash-based MP3 player shipments worldwide by the end of this year.

— Consumer survey data shows that the percentage of U.S. respondents owning a digital audio player has increased from 16% in 2001 to 25% in 2005.

The report, “Portable Digital Audio Players: Moving to the Beat of a Booming Market” (#IN0502148ID), includes results of a consumer survey about MP3 player ownership, profiles of leading portable audio player manufacturers and suppliers, as well as forecasts for portable audio player shipments and revenue.

For more information on this report, please visit: http://www.instat.com/catalog/Ccatalogue.asp?id=162 or contact Courtney McEuen at 480-483-4454 or cmceuen@reedbusiness.com. The report price is $3,295.

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In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com) is the leading provider of actionable research, assessments and market forecasts of semiconductors and advanced communications equipment and services. Our forecasts, analysis, and insights are derived from both a deep technology understanding and a unique research methodology, which examines each segment of the value chain for each market. Technology vendors, service providers, technology professionals and market specialists, worldwide, rely on In-Stat’s tenured, experienced staff and in-depth research to support critical technology, product and success decisions.

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