For more information, contact:

Elaine Potter, Marketing Coordinator
Phone: 480-483-4441; Email: epotter@reedbusiness.com

Booming Digital Audio Player Market Tops $4.5 Billion

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., June 21, 2005 - The exploding market for both hard disk drive and Flash-based portable audio players is expected to reach over 104 million units by 2009, up from 27.8 million units in 2004, reports In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). Drivers for this booming market include falling prices, the availability of legitimate subscription and pay-per-download online music sites, smaller hard disk drives, and increasing Flash memory capacities.

“As competition heats up, vendors are striving to differentiate products by offering a wide range of price points, memory capacities, and features,” says Stephanie Guza, In-Stat analyst. “As a result, we are seeing increased segmentation. For example, the hard disk drive (HDD) digital audio player segment can be sub-divided into two categories: the 1-inch or smaller segment and the 1.8-inch segment.”

A recent report by In-Stat found the following:

• Revenue for both HDD and Flash-based MP3 players reached approximately $4.5 billion, a remarkable increase of almost 200% over 2003.
  
• Apple is the leader in worldwide portable audio players with 30.2% of the combined HDD and Flash-based portable audio player market.
  
• Other leading vendors include Rio, iRiver and Creative.
  
• In-Stat expects that 1GB capacity or greater Flash MP3 players will represent just over 20% of all Flash-based MP3 player shipments worldwide by the end of this year.
  
• Consumer survey data shows that the percentage of US respondents owning a digital audio player has increased from 16% in 2001 to 25% in 2005.

Recent In-Stat research, Portable Digital Audio Players: Moving to the Beat of a Booming Market (#IN0502148ID), includes results of a consumer survey about MP3 player ownership, profiles of leading portable audio player manufacturers and suppliers, as well as forecasts for portable audio player shipments and revenue.

For more information, contact:

Stephanie Guza, Industry Analyst
Phone: 480-609-4532
Email: stephanie.guza@reedbusiness.com

Elaine Potter, Marketing Coordinator
Phone: 480-483-4441
Email: epotter@reedbusiness.com

About In-Stat

In-Stat’s market intelligence combines technical, market and end-user research and database models to analyze the Mobile Internet and Digital Entertainment ecosystems. Our insights are derived from a deep understanding of technology impacts, nearly 30 years of history in research and consulting, and direct relationships with leading players in each of our core markets. In-Stat provides its research through reports, annual subscriptions, consulting and advisory services to inform critical decisions. Technology and semiconductor vendors, infrastructure and device manufacturers, service providers and media companies worldwide rely on partnerships with In-Stat’s tenured, experienced staff and on our in-depth market intelligence to support critical business, product and technology decisions.

In-Stat is a strategic segment of the $9 billion Reed Elsevier global information network, with access to an expansive worldwide electronic network, extensive technology databases and well-informed personnel. As a member of Reed Business Information, In-Stat is a division of the largest business-to-business publisher in the U.S.