Apple still king of the hill when it comes to video online

When you’re first to market with a major innovation, it takes a really long time before someone can dethrone the king of the hill. Apple’s iTunes marketplace is a prime example of the benefits of getting to market first, then solidifying your ground before the competition gets up to speed.

According to an IHS Screen Digest report, iTunes still holds 64.5% of the market when it comes to consumers purchasing online videos. While the market share is decreasing (down 10 percent from 2009), both Microsoft and Sony have long ways to go before they get up to par with Apple. According to the study Microsoft holds 17.6 percent and Sony is sitting at 7.2 percent. Both Microsoft and Sony have increased their share in 2010, and have made commitments to online video. It was recently reported that Microsoft courted Conan O’Brien during his layoff with NBC to create exclusive content for Xbox Live.

I’ll be curious to see if the iPad will have similar results in the future. Apple began serving up music and television videos online in 2005—2006. That’s almost 6 years ago, and there is only just now true competitors in the market space. The iPad is in a similar position. Others have tried to bring competition to the market, but sales have been lacking.

It’s pretty clear that getting to market first is a huge competitive advantage.

Article Via TWICE

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.