Yesterday, Apple revealed a smaller and simpler iPod Shuffle amid great hoopla.  The new product features more storage, a much smaller form factor, and a feature called “VoiceOver” which rather usefully, given the lack of a screen, tells you what song is playing and who the artist is.  Priced to move at $79 USD, this is a clear reinvestment in a market that has paid off handsomely for Apple.  This chart covering 26 months (to Feb 2009) of sales on eBay reveals that the smaller iPod models have grown to address a broader market than their older, larger siblings, despite the multi-year market lead of earlier iPods:

It also reveals a sharp gender bias — with women favouring smaller, more lightweight and inexpensive iPods to their larger, more feature-rich and large-screened bretheren.  These numbers show that there is a clear and specific market for women in the portable MP3 player marketplace, and Apple has it:  the company is virtually untouched in this segment among its competitors, except for a smattering of far less-hyped offerings like the Samsung Pebble.

Analysis after Apple’s numbers were announced last year revealed that Apple’s iPod growth numbers were beginning to flatten.  The Nano seems to a clear killer, cutting through the middle with both a small size and a screen, but iPod Shuffle sales reveal a most compelling gender bias: the gap between the Shuffle (47% female) and the original iPod (28%) is eye-opening.

So should competitors be eyeing the ladies’ market for portable music players?  Will we be seeing more pink iPods at the low end of the range in our near future?  We will let you know.

As recently reported on this blog, HP had impressive results on the eBay USA platform during Q3 2008. What has happened since then? Last month, HP posted a 13% loss in profit for its fourth quarter and Dell reported a 48% decline in profit for the same period.

Despite the downturn in offline sales for both HP and Dell, HP’s online sales have seen a different trend. In Q4 08, there was an 89% increase in new HP laptop sales on the eBay USA platform over Q4 2007, a rise from $5.29 million USD to $10.01 million USD. Once again, HP surpasses Dell in this category for sales of this new products. Dell product sales on eBay for this category dropped 10% from $18.14 million to $7.32 million USD during this same period.

The popularity of new HP laptops is continuing into the first quarter of 2009. Our data, updated daily, shows that HP’s sales exceed that of Dell by 78.4% from January 01 to March 10 2009; and that HP has already surpassed its own Q1 2008 eBay revenues by 8%.

Will HP’s success on eBay be mirrored in offline retail? The answer will become clear when the first quarter reports are released.

As the US savings rate increases to an all time high since 1997, it seems that eBay is increasingly becoming a safe haven for various products including Dell technology.

For the fourth quarter, Dell has reported a profit of $351 million USD. This is a 48% decrease from their Q3 2008 profit of $727 million USD. Despite this offline decline in demand for Dell products and services, there has been a bright spot in eBay where it’s traded laptops and desktops have had a combined increase in net revenue and volume.

When compared to the third quarter of 2008, Dell experienced a 6% increase in revenue and a 13% increase in volume traded in eBay USA for combined laptops and desktops alone. Dell’s eBay revenue rose 9.4% of the total global net revenue for this quarter.

It would also appear that in 2008 eBay users have indicated an increasing preference for refurbished Dell items over new and used ones. In a Q4 08/07 comparison there is a 1.82% reduction in revenue and an 18% increase in volume on eBay for Dell laptops and computers. For refurbished Dell laptops and desktops, the volume rose dramatically by 36% and the revenue increased 18% to $14.1 million USD from $11.9 million USD.

Sometimes described as a venue for early technology adopters, it will be interesting to see how many more chose alternative venues such as eBay as the American consumption rate slows.

In her article, Holmen features AERS data to explain the recent Barbie trends:

“In the last 90 days, 312,000 Barbie related items sold on ebay.com for $7 million USD, according to data from AERS. There are 2,800 sellers per day with an average price per purchase of $22.60.”

Be sure to check out the full article at this link:

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/victorianews/lifestyles/40387023.html

On March 5th, New Media BC will present AERS CEO Fred Speckeen as a keynote speaker at an afternoon workshop designed to provide BC entrepreneurs with the information they need to expand to the USA.

According to Speckeen, savvy entrepreneurs will understand the factors driving a continued rapid uptake of existing and new E-commerce and media products and services. For example:

• At Q3 2008 the E-commerce portion of USA retail grew to a year over year rate of 5.7%, while USA retail had only grown .3%
• 11% of online adults and 19% of 18-24 year-olds have used Twitter or a similar service
• 35% of adult Internet users have a profile on an online social networking site
• 19% of all internet users have downloaded a podcast
• 80% of young adults and >50% of all adult online users play video games

Speckeen has almost two decades experience at VP and CEO level gained internationally across the technology, media and semiconductor fields in hands-on roles spanning product management, sales, marketing and technology licensing. He has established numerous successful partnerships with USA-based firms.

Event Details

Date:       March 5, 2009

Time:       12:00 pm

Location:  Centre for Digital Media, 577 Great Northern Way Vancouver, BC V5T 1E1

Organized By  Dawn Wattie Law Corporation & New Media BC Association

Price:        $70 ($45 Member Price)

Registration Deadline:  March 3, 2009

For more information:  http://www.newmediabc.com/events.php?event=152

How is this going to affect future demand and will there be supply shortages? Or does today’s price represent gold entering into a zone of resistances that precedes the decline in demand?

It is possible that the eBay gold bullion trading community will be facing a large increase. In the past week, gold bullion trading on the eBay USA platform alone peaked at an all time weekly high of $3.26 million USD in two years. This represents a 95% increase from the same time a year ago.

As the gold trend unfolds, it will be interesting to see how the online gold trading community will respond.

In Q4 2008, sales of new laptops on eBay USA increased from Q4 2007 by 40%. The overall gross sales for 2008 exceeded those of 2007 by nearly 30%- going from $3.25 million USD to $4.16 million USD. In contrast, new Dell and Compaq laptops have experienced declining eBay sales since April 2008.

Steadily increasing average sold prices for all HP desktops on eBay USA are demonstrating consumer preferences. Desktops sold for an average of $510 USD per laptop in June 2008. By November 2008, that value had peaked to $760 USD. Although Dell saw a similar climb, it was nowhere near as drastic-ranging from $440 USD in April 2008 to $580 USD in November 2008.

Using Terapeak, an eBay market research tool for eBay sellers, the following analysis was performed for “Playstaion 3″ with a price range between $399 -$5,000 USD. On Saturday Nov 18th, over 10,250 Sony PS3s were sold on eBay at an average price of $1,243 USD. For a 7 day period, between November 16th and November 22nd over 28,500 PS3s were sold on eBay at an average price of $1,276. In comparison, last year a little over $23 million worth of Microsoft Xbox 360s were sold in the week following its launch (November 22nd 2005). In addition, Microsoft Xbox 360s sold at an average price of $718 per console, while Sony PS3s were selling at $1,276 per console; yielding a $558 premium over Xbox 360 consoles.

The following information provides further insight into Sony Playstation 3 activity on eBay in the week following its launch: On November 18th, 2006
1. over 2250 PLAYSTATION 3 consoles sold between 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM PST

November 16th, 2006 through November 22nd 2006
1. Over 35,000 were listed on eBay.com
2. 122 units between $4,999 USD – $6,000 USD

Playstation 3 Consoles – November 18th, 2006
Average Sold Price: $1,243
Total Listings: 12,611
Successful Listings 10,262

Playstation 3 Consoles – November 16th, 2006 through November 22nd 2006
Average Sold Price $1,276
Total Listings 35,521
Successful Listings 28,546

Terapeak Marketplace Research has developed the most advanced research tool, helping eBay sellers learn when to sell, what price to charge and what their competition is doing. With research tools for eBay.com, eBay.de and eBay Motors Parts and Accessories, Terapeak is the international leader in eBay market research. To see more in-depth analysis visit Terapeak for a 2 week free trial www.terapeak.com/signup/freetrial. ###

CONTACT: Denise Hogue
Terapeak Marketing
w. 250.483.3273
www.terapeak.com
dhogue [at] terapeak.com