Are you nonplussed by Apple’s new, $349, 80Gb video iPod? Is the prospect of playing Pac-Man, Tetris and Texas Hold’ Em on your music player failing to win you over? Fear not. You’re not alone.

While Apple aficionados oooh and aaah over the latest gadget porn unveiled by Steve Jobs this week, there is a swelling number of consumers in gadget land who crave a simple music player – one that plays their favourite songs and won’t cost them a half-month’s rent to acquire.

Yes, for many European consumers, the brands TrekStor, SupportPlus and Koola are more attractive than the über-cool iPod, the Sony Walkman and Creative players. The appeal? They’re dirt cheap. With storage prices plummeting, a 1Gb model from these manufacturers now costs as low as £50. Want to go more budget than that? Retailer’s white label-branded MP3 players are selling even faster. For £19, Dixons is advertising a 1Gb Logik, its cheapest ever MP3 player. And Napster has started giving away a 512Mb Sandisk player, which ordinarily retails for £30, to those who subscribe to its £14.95-per-month service.

"The retailer white-label-branded MP3 players have become the fastest growing segment of the European market over the past few years," said Chris Winslet, an analyst with Understanding & Solutions, a UK digital media consultancy.

The firm predicts these simply designed, made-for-retailers models will account for roughly 35 per cent of unit sales in the European MP3 player market in the second half of 2006.

But just who buys these no-name, low-frills models? They certainly aren't the techno chic-seekers who spent hundreds of pounds on the first 5 Gig iPod, as yours truly did four years ago (only to see the hard drive die on me a month after the warranty expired. Full disclosure: I'm on my fourth iPod in four years. Truth be told, I'd rather replace my lost or stolen or damaged iPod with a new one than invest in a rival brand only to spend a week re-downloading all my CDs, if I can find them, onto a new digital jukebox application).

No, the consumers who proudly buy 19-quid MP3 players are the true rock n' roll rebels. Blessed with an unapologetic disregard for geek cachet, the cheap and cheerful crowd is the second wave of MP3 player consumers – think your clueless aunt who has never sent a text message in her life. They are probably taking the player back to a dial-up, Pentium II computer and filling it with The Best of Paul Anka.

To be sure, Apple need not fear that the next iPod killer will sell at supermarket check-out counters besides the razor blades and air fresheners. In just under five years, Apple has sold 58.9 million iPods worldwide. In fact, the iPod outsells its nearest competitor, Creative, by nearly a margin of three-to-one in Western Europe: Apple took 23 per cent of sales in the first quarter of this year, Creative took 8 per cent and everyone else took less than 2 per cent, according to figures from Understanding & Solutions.

But in worldwide unit sales terms, an interesting picture emerges. The no-names or "Class C" brands – the likes of Trekstor, Koola and the Wal-Mart in-house model Durabrand –outsell the iPod between them, and they comprise the fastest growing segment of the market too. This is particularly true in price-sensitive markets such as Germany, Italy and France.

According to the consultancy Understanding & Solutions, in Germany, which is tied with Britain as Europe’s largest MP3 player market, the top seller is Trekstor, followed by Apple, Creative, SupportPlus and Maxfield. Sony Walkman just makes the top ten, the firm says.

"In Germany, the major brands struggle against the no-name Taiwanese and Japanese products. The German consumer tends to trust more the retailer’s brand name," said Winslet. In Germany, names like Metro and ProMarkt carry more weight than Apple and Steve Jobs. The average German consumer may still play Pac-Man and Tetris, but not on an MP3 player.

Bernhard Warner, formerly Reuters' internet correspondent in Europe and senior editor for The Industry Standard Europe, writes about technology, the internet and media industries. He can be reached at techscribe@gmail.com

Previous articles by Bernhard Warner can be found here

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