CD Players outsold fourfold by MP3 Players

Research conducted by GfK NOP, a leader in market search and consumer insight, has shown a huge increase in the sale of Mp3 players. Over thirty two million units were sold during 2007, which represents a four to one sales ratio when compared to the sale of CD players.

These figures are somewhat misleading, 75% of the Mp3 players sold were integrated into mobile phones. Therefore, it's debatable whether consumers purchased the item for the Mp3 player.

GfK NOP recorded the sales of dedicated Mp3 players at just eight million units, which would be an equal ratio against the eight million sales of CD players. But, this represents a huge leap in the sale of Mp3 players.

Neither the Type Cassette, CD, DVD, or Vinyl Record sold as quickly, or appear to have caught the imagination of the general public to the same degree as Mp3. Without a doubt, Mp3 is the fastest selling music format ever recorded by market research institutions.

Even if the current sales figures can be construed as misleading, it's to be noted that cell phone manufacturers have considered the implemention of Mp3 into their handsets as crucial marketing.

Just as with DVD or Bluray, a media format stands or falls by it's endorsements. If it has a strong cross section of support from users, publishers and hardware manufacturers, then it has a excellent chance of success.

To begin with, it was online file sharers who made Mp3 popular. The commerical music industry was probably forced to embrace it, due to rampant piracy and the popularity of hardware devices, such as the iPod.

The key to Mp3's success is portability. Just like vinyl records became too bulky in comparison to CD's, CD's are too bulky in comparison to Mp3. All that Mp3 files need is a storage device, such as flash memory, which is dimensionally smaller in length and width to a compact disc.

Therefore, it can come as no surprise that manufacturer's of portable media devices have embraced Mp3. The same cannot be said of manufacturer's of Hi-fi systems. Mp3's use compression to make the file smaller than the file format found on CD's.

The problem is that the compression distorts and lowers the quality of the music. Therefore, for audiophiles, it's doubtful whether Mp3 will ever transplant CD's or Vinyl from a home Hi-fi system.