Despite gloomy iPod predictions, Zune didn't upset the apple cart

TWICE: Apple Posts Record Quarter, Sells 21.1 Million iPods

Cupertino, Calif. — Apple announced another record breaking quarter, ended Dec. 30, resulting from “very strong” sales of iPods and “robust” sales of Macs, the company said.
Revenue hit $7.12 billion, growing 24 percent from the quarter a year ago, and net income hit $1 billion, up 78 percent.
Sales of iPods for the quarter were 21.1 million, marking a 50 percent increase over the quarter a year ago, despite warnings from analysts that the market growth for MP3 players will slow over the next few years, down to about 10 percent annually. In addition, Apple said it maintained its high market share, achieving 72 percent share in the United States in December, according to NPD Techworld figures.

Despite naysayers who've been calling the iWorld a "fad," Steve Jobs' army of little white enamel-coated minions are past seeking world domination, and are now consolodating their rule. There is, it seems, no stopping them.

Way back in August I made a cute analogy about the handheld media player market. Since I'm enamoured of my own cleverness, I'll drag it out again and dust it off:

iPod is a fifty-foot long great white shark in the digital ocean, and every other portable player builder such as Creative Labs, iRiver, Sony et al are the little shoals of fish that follow behind, nibbling on the scraps of market share that iPod hasn't gobbled up.

Well, Zune has gone pretty much nowhere, so who's left to offer an alternative?

*silence* *crickets chirping*

That's what I thought.

Also important, is the boost that iPod's uber-ubiquity (yes, I just made that up now) has given to music downloads, to quote TWICE again:

Music revenue fueled by iTunes sales was up 29 percent. iTunes now accounts for 85 percent of songs downloaded and purchased in the United States, Apple said, and sales of iTunes gift cards doubled over the holidays.

That, of course, ties in to what I was saying the other day. Anybody who is not onboard with music downloads (more particularly, anybody who is not onboard with downloads to consumer's iPods) is missing the boat

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