March 3, 2005

iPod Accessories Are Music to Fans' Ears

Say you had 60,000 compact discs of music and wanted all of it to be accessible every minute. How would you transport your tunes? If you were fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, who heads Chanel and Fendi, you would design an iPod case to carry your 40 iPods on your trips around the world.

The Fendi Juke Box, an iPod carrying case for 12 iPods, is modeled after Lagerfeld’s own and costs $1,500 – iPods not included – according to iPodLounge.com.

“It’s the single most over-the-top iPod story I've heard,” said Jeremy Horvitz, 29, editor in chief of the Web resource site for iPods. “People still pamper their iPods in an almost surrealistic way.”

The iPod’s technology and sleek design have turned consumers into fanatics, some of whom buy multiple iPods and expensive accessories like the Christian Dior Vintage iPod case and the Louis Vuitton Damier iPod case, which cost almost as much as the iPod itself. Despite the accessories’ high costs, high-end retailers find that users will gladly pay. Coach, a designer leather goods brand, sold out of its $98 python-skin iPod case before the item was officially available in stories in September 2004, according to Jason Mendez, an associate manager of the Coach store in the Time Warner Center in Manhattan. A second release of Coach iPod cases, available in April of this year, has also sold out already.

The iPod, a small portable audio device created by Apple Computers in 2001, has become a must-have item for music lovers since it hit the retail market. Although the average price of an iPod is $299, Apple sold more than 4.5 million iPods from September 2004 to Christmas Day 2004. Along with the iPod Mini, a smaller version at $199, these hand-held devices allow music fans to take all of their music with them. Users keep their iPods with them at all times and put on the headphones to block noises and other distractions of city life.

“The one common thread in iPod users we know is that they literally love their iPods. It’s not like the Walkman, which people appreciated but didn’t treasure. IPods hook you in with their simplicity and become part of your life,” Horvitz said, referring to the Sony compact disc player which was popular a decade ago.

“Without exaggeration, there are more iPods in my office than staplers and Scotch tape dispensers combined,” said Jon Accarrino, 29, the producer of an iPod Web site called MethodShop.com.

“Decades from now when they make a period movie about New York in the early 2000s, they’ll show sidewalks full of people walking around with white earphones,” said Khoi Vinh, 33, a Web designer from Manhattan who writes Subtraction (www.subtraction.com), a Web journal about design and the Internet.

The iPod has become more than an electronic gadget; devoted users alter their behavior or develop high-cost spending habits as a result of their favorite music player. Anthony Yu, 23, a marketer from Brooklyn felt his iPod helped him explore new music but confined him to his computer for an extra hour each night. “Ever since I got my iPod, I’ve been downloading songs I never would listen to before,” he said. “Now it’s like I have an iPod, I have to keep up with it. I wouldn’t listen to my iPod unless it’s new music.”

For Josh Seide, a 25-year old technology director from Hells Kitchen, his iPod Mini has made him antisocial. “It’s so easy to be listening to music all the time that people who don’t feel like paying attention to anybody can just put their headphones on,” he said. “If you don’t make eye contact with anyone, no one will bother talking to you.”

In contrast, iPods turned Accarrino into a popular co-worker at his office. “I have the only iPod dock in my office, and on any given day, it’s not unusual for me to find a few iPods on my desk waiting in the charge queue,” he said, referring to the special iPod battery charger. To distinguish his iPod from his co-workers’, Accarino customized his iPod screen to glow orange. Despite the $35 fee, Accarino believes the modification is worth it since he has already spent more than $1,000 on his five iPods. “If you really love music, you will spend all sorts of money to feed your habit,” he reasoned. “Some people will spend much more than $300 just on a concert ticket.” He estimates that the average iPod user will spend $100 to $150 on accessories, like carrying cases and special headphones.

“People still pamper their iPods in an almost surrealistic way. Most people first look for a good, protective case as a guarantee that the iPod won't be damaged, and then start to add other accessories – better headphones, new speakers and so on,” said Horvitz about the consumer spending trend among iPod users.

Other accessories can cost more than the iPod itself. Horvitz notes that the Bose SoundDock, a popular iPod home-speaker system, costs $299 – $100 more than the price of an iPod Mini.

“The more you want to incorporate your iPod into the various places you listen to music – your car, your home, on vacations – the more the accessory costs will add up. There are many sets of replacement headphones sold for $300 and up,” Horvitz said.

Horvitz doesn’t see an end to the iPod spending trend. Earlier this year, Apple introduced the iPod Shuffle, the smallest version of the iPod that plays stored music tracks at random. In addition to being one-third the size of an iPod, the iPod Shuffle is also one-third of the price. “Since the $99 iPod Shuffle is so inexpensive, and the first accessories are beginning to emerge at $20 to $30 price points, there’s no question that many people will soon be spending more on accessories than on the iPods themselves,” Horvitz said.

Accarino, who already owns an iPod Shuffle, agrees. “I have a feeling Apple has much more planned for the iPod Shuffle than we know just yet,” he said. “We'll just have to wait and see.”