Apple Dumps PortalPlayer Chip

Quash writes to mention a BusinessWeek article about Apple's decision to not use the PortalPlayer chip in a future version of the iPod nano. From the article: "PortalPlayer stock promptly shed $9.46, or nearly 42% of its value, and more than $220 million in market value. Apple generally doesn't discuss future products, nor its manufacturing or component supply strategies. It had no comment on the matter. But theories about who may have been the beneficiary of PortalPlayer's misfortune are abounding."

Apple didn't make this announcement.

[Anonymous Coward]

PortalPlayer did. Nice proofreading, editors.

Sigmatel or their own?

[WiZZLa]

It's possible they are making their own chip, but wouldn't it be ironic if they went with Sigmatel (who bought Rio). Maybe then they can finally get gapless playback and a decent mp3 player.

Not dumped entirely

[john82]

Apple has NOT dumped PortalPlayer entirely. At least, not yet.

Instead, Apple announced that PortalPlayer's latest chip will not be used in an upcoming version of the iPod Nano. PortalPlayer is the supplier for this particular chip in the current Nano and Video iPods. The announcement made no mention of changing the supplier for the current product line.

Re:Massive Drop In iPod Demand

[monoqlith]

Ok, now you're simply making things up. From this article regarding Apple's most recent quarterly earnings reports:

"Apple said it shipped 1,112,000 Mac computers and more than 8.5 million iPods music players during the quarter. The iPod shipments represented a 61 percent increase over the same period last year."

Therefore what you have just said is patently incorrect. QED.

Re:Massive Drop In iPod Demand

[monoqlith]

Ok, now you're simply making things up. From this article regarding Apple's most recent quarterly earnings reports:
"Apple said it shipped 1,112,000 Mac computers and more than 8.5 million iPods music players during the quarter. The iPod shipments represented a 61 percent increase over the same period last year."
Therefore what you have just said is patently incorrect. QED.

Sorry, didn't post the link [eetimes.com]

Re:Massive Drop In iPod Demand

[Jerry Rivers]

"...as the massive drop in iPod sales shows."

For more information on this "massive drop in iPod sales" please read: http://www.ipodobserver.com/story/26405 [ipodobserver.com]

Highlights from the above story:

  iPod shipments are up 61 percent compared to last year, and the company has now sold over 50 million units.

  The iPod market share is up, too, accounting for 78 percent of the portable music players sold. In December 2005, that number was at 71 percent

  Outside of the United States, the iPod is the top-selling MP3 player in the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and Canada.

Despite strong iPod sales, Apple sees room for major growth in the MP3 player market. Based on sales of other consumer electronic devices, Mr. Oppenheimer noted, "The MP3 player market has a lot of room for growth. According to Forester research, U.S. household MP3 player penetration was less than one quarter that of digital cameras as of the end of 2005."

Re:Other Theories

[augustz]

So true. If the lexus of the space can't afford your product (and apple is the lexus of the mp3 space in terms of amount of money to burn) I'd say it's not going to be too popular with anyone else.

Search for portalplayer here: http://www.rockbox.org/irc/rockbox-20040811.txt [rockbox.org]

Granted, this isn't PR speak, but people wondering why in the world someone would use the product. Of course, as an investor, this is probably the first thing you are tracking, how good is their product relative to their competitiors. I'm just excited Apple has moved off them. Likely means we'll be seeing some good battery times.