IDC Forecasts Audio Player Market Explosion

Market research firm IDC has just released a new report, "Worldwide Compressed Audio Player 2004-2008 Forecast: MP3 Reaches Far and Wide" that predicts that the audio player market will grow 20% annually over the next four years, to a size of $58 billion in 2008. The entire report is available here for one low, low payment of $3500.

As is typical, some of what they say is pretty obvious:

Compressed audio players, also known as MP3 players, are coming into the mainstream as portable flash player prices fall and capacities rise, the iPod mini and other small form factor portable jukeboxes come to market, and more and more devices, including DVD players, support compressed audio as a secondary feature. New opportunities abound for chip vendors, device manufacturers, and paid music service providers to guide mainstream music consumers into this rapidly evolving digital audio market.

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