1,000 songs: portable media player ideal size

One thousand songs is just about the right size for a portable media player, according to a survey by Jupiter Research.

The online survey found 90 per cent of consumers have no more than 1,000 songs on their PCs. And 77 per cent of the consumers Jupiter questioned said they'd be interested in purchasing a portable media player with a capacity of 1,000 songs. The 4GB hard drive included in Apple Computer's iPod Mini, and in MP3 players from some Apple rivals, holds roughly that number of songs.

Apple's latest product was so popular in the US that the computer-maker had to push the player's global release back from April to July.

"Vendors such as Creative, Archos, Dell and Apple have all created hard drive music players that can hold up to and beyond 5,000 songs," the report states. "Hard drive players with such large capacity for content go above and beyond not only the music that most consumers want on their portable music player, but also beyond the digital music that they own."

Hard drive size isn't the only thing that matters to music lovers. When asked which features matter most, 55 per cent listed a rechargeable battery, 52 per cent said small device size and 49 per cent said the ability to connect the device to their computer. Vendors should be aware of these priorities, Jupiter said.

The Jupiter Research survey also found that 20 per cent of consumers said playing MP3 files is important, versus 7 per cent who would prefer files in Microsoft's WMA format and fewer than 1 per cent who prefer the Advanced Audio Coding format, an open standard that was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group and which is supported on Apple's iTunes music store.