Tuesday, October 26, 2004

At least a dozen portable music players are angling to steal sales away from Apple Computer Inc.'s wildly popular line of iPods this holiday season. In the past month alone, five companies have unveiled their iPod challengers -- pocket-sized players with hard disks that can store anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 songs.

There's Dell Inc.'s new Pocket DJ, Virgin Electronics' Player, Creative Labs Inc.'s Zen Micro, iRiver America Inc.'s H300, and Archos Inc.'s Gmini XS200.

"Everyone is trying to get a bite out of Apple's piece of the pie," said Susan Kevorkian, analyst at market research firm IDC.

Apple was not the first to introduce a high-capacity hard-disk portable music player -- Archos was. But Apple's October 2001 launch of the sleek, white iPod defined the market.

Today, Apple rules the field, riding high with a gizmo that's both fashion chic and a cultural icon.

Worldwide, Apple enjoyed a 54 percent chunk of hard-disk unit shipments in 2003, maintaining a strong lead in a market predicted to grow to 25.5 million units in 2008, up from 2.7 million units shipped in 2003, according to IDC.

The competition also includes players introduced earlier this year from Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Corp., and MP3 player pioneer, Rio Audio. For their part, Samsung, Sony and Virgin have brand and style cachet -- not to mention deep pockets. Rio and Creative, smaller companies, have earned points in user-friendliness, while Dell and Archos are offering lower prices for the capacity.