iPod Sales are declining at an unprecedented rate.
From its launch five years ago its sales graph showed a consistent upward curve, culminating in a period around last Christmas that saw a record 14 million sold. But sales fell to 8.5 million in the following quarter, and down to 8.1 million in the most recent three-month period. Wall Street is reportedly starting to worry that the bubble will burst.

iPod Backlash?
Industry experts talk of a ‘backlash’ and of the iPod ‘wilting away before our eyes’. Most disastrously, Apple’s signature pocket device with white earphones may simply have become too common to be cool. Industry-watchers warn that the iPod could soon be regarded by teenage cynics as their ‘parents’ player’ because a mass-market product rarely equates with edgy fashionability.

Updating the iPod is time consuming.
The Zandl Group, a New York-based trends forecaster which regularly interviews a panel of 3,000 consumers aged 25-35 cited that the batteries are not replaceable which means you need a new player. Other complaints include that iTunes is overpriced and the format is not easily transferred to other players. Many iPod users claim updating their iPod is too much work and many consumers who purchased iPods had not even taken theirs out of the package.

Is the iPod in Danger of its own success?
The Zandle Group spokeswoman, Carla Avruch said the iPod is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success: ‘Some backlash is against the ubiquity of the iPod – everyone has those white headphones on the train.’

(The Observer)