Apple (ticker: AAPL) is taking over Japan's portable music player and on-line song download industry by storm. In the meantime, Sony (ticker: SNE) has had a hard time generating positive news, especially after the ongoing debacle over its rootkit DRM CDs.
Apple Japan in a press release (Japanese only) issued today announced it is now #1 in Japan in digital portable music player sales, controlling 60% of the market (according to a WebBCN survey). The press release declared Apple was at the forefront of Japan's digital music revolution. The introduction of iTunes in August and the iPod nano have boosted Apple into the number one spot ahead of rival Sony. iTunes was a tremendous hit selling over a million songs in its first 4-days.
The Apple iPod image has spread en masse making it even more difficult for Sony to reclaim market share. Apple has been quick with new product releases and has succeeded in appealing to the "accessorizing" culture of Japan. The press release mentioned there are over 1,000 custom accessories to iPods. And of 2006 model autos, one-third of them are iPod ready and for those autos that are not, there are several electronics companies providing aftermarket solutions.
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