iPod Fails To Dent South Korea
from the local-pride dept
It looks like South Korean manufacturers’ plan to turn MP3 player sales into a patriotic issue is working: sales of the iPod are well behind those of local vendors. The iPod commands less than 2% of the MP3 player market there, with the top three vendors — all Korean — commanding nearly 60%. First the iPod’s sort-of defeat in Japan, and now this — apparently black turtlenecks don’t have the same mind control properties there as in the West.
Comments on “iPod Fails To Dent South Korea”
Imagine if the US or Europe did that
The korean economy relies a lot on exports. Picking a fight over the iPod does not seem like such a good idea to me.
Re: Imagine if the US or Europe did that
Is it that they care more about codec support, and DRM issues then the less educated American gadget consumer?
Re: Imagine if the US or Europe did that
Yea like apple will start a trade embargo against korea. They are going to have to face the facts just like US automakers are starting too, that they arent top dog anymore, and if they dont clean and shape up they will start heading towards the same downfall (mp3 player wise) as are the big three automakers.
Well....
Well, South Korea is also the most technologically saavy country per capita. It has the highest rates of broadband and such. It seems that in every movie there is some kind of internet scene in which someone looks up a web site or chats on IM, because it’s just what everyone does. Even my grandparents go on IM and looks at web sites, and dialup is practially unheard of these days since everyone has broadband.
Korean manufacturers make mp3 products that don’t restrict you, and koreans in general hate those kind of products. i don’t think it’s a nationalistic issue, i think it’s just the steep price of the imported Ipods and the clunky software used for it. I could get an Iriver which has good explanations in my native korean with a lot more features and harddrive space, and they weren’t brainwashed like all the people in the US with images of celebrities wearing ipods and using designer gucci cases for them.
My friggin 75 year old grandfather has a bad ass mp3 player with no stupid restrictions and with 2 gigs of flash memory. he doesn’t need more memory but if he did, he would go and buy a HD player that has 20 gigs of space and is about twice as cheap.
It’s simple economics, nothing to do with “nationalist” calls. people seem to like criticizing other countries without looking at their own.
Clunky Software?
What are they putting in the water over there? The user experience in general on the iPod is why it’s so popular here.
Anyway, South Korea SERIOUSLY needs to send more of their local consumer electronics to America. You guys are rocking out all kinds of kick ass mobile phones and gadgets and we get like, nearly bupkis because our stores only stock from the giants in the industry.
A plea to all South Korean electronics manufacturers: Ship to America! We WILL buy your stuff!
Re: Clunky Software?
Absolutely right itunes is clunky. It has stingy DRM, treats the customer like idiots, tries to prevent competition from other players, and not only that, is the biggest resource hog and furthermore, on PC’s it doesn’t play very nicely with other software.
I totally agree about the cool gadgets. My phone looked like a dinosaur. My grandfather had a way smaller and sleeker phone than I did. A korean phone when the grandparent came to visit was the first color screen phone that I saw back in 2000 or so.
Views
Nice blog.You write such a nice article.I enjoyed this.
Ipods suck
Look at the competition in Korea.. The iAudio X5, for $250, you can 30 gigs, 32 hours of playback, color screen, MP3, Ogg, Flac, WMA, Wav, Radio.
Line in, line out, scheduled radio recording, microphone, video support, backgrounds, pictures, e-books…
Ipod has NOTHING on that!
Re: Ipods suck
But the iPod Shuffle has no screen! Surely that innovation alone is worth an extra $100.
Re: Ipods DONT suck
I, myself, don’t despise the ipod, but i dislike its first models. It, in fact, does NOT suck, but RULES. Here are some simple BUT serious resions why my reasioning is 99.99999999999997 correct;
The New Ipod Now:
1. Has VIDEO compatability (movies, music videos, and home movies)
2. Has PHOTO compatability (can hold 25,000)
3. Has MUSIC compatability (more than 15,000)
4. Has hard drive and mass storage compatability
5. Has a 250,000 color screen (3.5″ X 2.2″)
6. An awsome sixty, COUNT EM’, 60 Gigabite hard drive
7. Has Multiple features like, calander, sleep timer, alarm clock, hold switch, screen lock, song randomizer, games, click wheel, music quiz, audiobooks, podcasts, and many attatchments that could be added on (voice recorder, radio, ect.)
8. Can be hooked up to your car with car integration
9. Has an equalizer built in to it (to ensure sound quality)
10. Has 20 hours of battery life
11. Is one of the smallest portable music MP3 player that can hold more than 15,000 songs
12. Has a built in screen lock
13. Has a built in stopwatch
14. Iis very small and thin (2.4″ X 4,1″)
15. Has an optional remote dock
16. Has contacts and sceduals
17. Notes (you can write and read them)
18. Has loads of settings
19. Multiple language settings
20. Can hold, playlists, albums, and numerous folders of music
21. Can rate songs
22. And much, much more
AND your saying to me that, A STUPID LITTLE 569MB iRIVIER IS BETTER THAN A 60 GIG IPOD THAT ALSO PLAYS VIDEO AND PICTURES, YOU CALL THAT SUCKING!?!??!?!
The insane asylum’s that way buddy——————–>
Hmm,, you are being WAY TO BIAS.
First, iriver does not manufacture “569MB” players… they never did! Plus, does the iPod have-
voice record features? (without the need to buy another product)
radio? (ditto above)
camera? (ditto above)
Hmm didn’t think so.
When does a STOP WATCH come into use?