Over the last year, Apple's share of the music player market has rocketed - with almost seven in ten players in the US bearing the iPod name.

According to research from NPD Group, the iPod holds nearly 68 per cent of the music player market, with the closest rival, Rio, holding just over six per cent and third place challenger iRiver with around five per cent.

Apple's slice of the total media player market is not to be sniffed at - but the statistics for the iPod's share of the US hard drive-based player market is even higher - 82 per cent, with the second place going to Creative.

While the figure is a huge rise on the iPod's position last year, more and more manufacturers are attempting to muscle in on the market - Sony, Dell and most recently Virgin are all lining up but analysts believe it will be a while before Apple has serious competition in the market.

Nevertheless, the challenges are there. Analyst house IDC recently predicted portable flash players will boom - and it's an area where Apple hasn't made its presence felt yet.

From Silicon.com