Music is utility?

iPod has been a No.1 digital music player since its debut in 2001. It takes over 70% market share, overwhelming other competitors in the table below. Reportedly, over 100 Million units of iPod have been sold cumulatively and at the same time sales of songs through iTunes(which has crucial role for accelerating the sales of iPod) have hit a new high, 3 billion downloads and more as of first half in 2007.

It could be read that every iPod has 30 songs on average inside which are supposed to be directly downloaded from iTunes. Well, it looks not so big. It means there have been so many activities for accessing digital music including illegal piracy in spite of big success of iTunes.

All the actions to get music looks so pervasive as it could be considered almost utility. I think utility business model in tap water and electricity might be applicable for this digital music. Some idea on this will be posted later.

Deals on Digital Music Players - WSJ.com

The Biggest Bite
The iPod has captured the biggest chunk of the market for digital music players
Company	Market Share
Apple	71%
SanDisk	10%
Creative Labs	4%
Microsoft	3%
Samsung	2%
Source: NPD Group