Forrester Study Rains On iTunes’ Parade
A new Forrester Research study shows that only 3% of online households made an iTunes purchase last year. Buyers spent an average of $35 at iTunes over the past year but half of all transactions were $3 or less. 
Forrester speculates that with these smaller sales transaction fees threaten to make iTunes unprofitable.
Since the introduction of the iTunes store, Apple has been steadily selling only 20 tracks for each iPod sold, suggesting according to Forrester, that even at $.99 most consumers aren’t really sold on the value of digital music.
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Hot Track: Aggro1 – Since U Been Gone (KC AAS Mashup) [MP3] Specialized Bicycles commissioned a Nutcracker rendition using only bike parts Or grab the mp3 (via s’gum) iTunes sales sluggish. 50% of buyers only spent $3 over the…
One thing research groups don’t tell us — not that I’ve noticed — is how many iPods the average owner has purchased. Most iPod owners I know are on their second or third iPod. So one can guess that even though the number of songs per iPod is only about 20, the average number of songs per *person* is higher than 20.
Apple has no need to worry about iTunes’ profitability or lack thereof. It is a necessary complement to the very profitable iPod. Since it would never be divested, iTunes should not be though of as a standalone business unit.