Apple Digital Music Player MarketThere are two main key issues when dealing with Apple's digital music player market. The first issue concerns Apple's maintaining market share of digital music players. The second question is whether or not Apple has a niche music player by not licensing its technology. Apple holds a substantial 60% market share of the digital music player market, while only 11% of the US population owns digital devices. For Apple to maintain its leading role in the digital player market, it must consistently maintain its innovative power compared to other digital music players in the industry. Apple not licensing their technology and making a niche music player could hurt them in a market where consumers may want to use their device to its fullest potential. AnalysisWhen analyzing the Apple industry, one of the main tools used was five forces analysis. The first force examined was the barrier to entry, of which capital, brand loyalty and economies of scale were the main components. In an industry where technology plays such an important role, capital is a must to stay innovative and stay ahead of the competition in the research and development department. Capital is also necessary because there are already so many big names in the music player industry that it would take a major advertising campaign and some kind of niche in the market to stand out. When it comes to brand loyalty, companies like Apple, Dell, Creative Labs, iRiver, RCA, and SanDisk already play an important role by producing reliable and affordable music players depending on the technology you look for in a music player. Economies of scale would play an important role in deciding whether or not to enter the music player market because Apple controls 60% of the music player market where only 11% of the population owns a player. This would lead one to believe that because Apple has such a large percentage of the market that they have sold enough products, economies of scale aren't really about them. To get to the point where you can sell your product at prices low enough to compete, you would have to sell a large amount and with only 40% of the market open to smaller, less tech-savvy companies, this would be a difficult task.