Sony’s line of MP3 players and its
MP3 Walkman Phones proved most
successful this year, beating out
Samsung’s constantly improving range
of players and iRiver’s – a longstanding
favourite in PC Authority Reliability
and Service Awards.
231 of Sony’s 548
respondents in this category were very
satisfied with battery life, and 294 were
very satisfied with reliability.
Apple’s iPod range rated well for
reliability, but the perceived high cost
of Apple’s music players stopped it
from scoring as highly as it otherwise
would have.
One additional interesting datapoint
was that buyers purchasing from
anything other than the main brands
were considerably less happy with
their product selection. Unlike in most
categories, where “other” scores around
average, other brands of MP3 player,
considered collectively, had only 60% of
purchasers willing to consider the same
brand again.
With MP3 players increasingly
becoming a convergence item
– whether included with GPS, mobile
phone, media player or other gadget
– this will be the last time we run this
category. Media Players will be the
replacement catch-all next year.
