Some are predicting that iPod will rule the Holiday Shopping this year.
Even with Microsoft Zune looking to knock the iPod from its lofty perch, Apple’s portable music player is expected to remain at the top of the charts for MP3 players during the Christmas holiday shopping season. In fact, market-research firm NPD Group says the iPod will joins the ranks of plasma and LCD televisions, notebook computers, and digital cameras as the hot-selling items this December.
Looking at the data seems to indicate that the iPod will rule over Zune.
A chart of search volume for ‘ipod’ and ‘zune’ shows that the share of searches for ‘ipod’ was 3X greater than the share of searches for ‘zune’ for the week ending 12/9/06.
The search term data show us that if it is possible to unseat a product with such a dominant market share as the iPod, it will be a long slow road. People are slowly checking out the Zune, reading reviews, and seeing what other people think before they make the leap.
While Zune has generated a good deal of interest, it’s not going to unseat the iPod this holiday season.