Apple retains huge lead in music player market

Apple Computer continued to lead the U.S. digital music player market in the second quarter with a 75.6 percent share, according to the NPD Group.

"Apple has done a great job of focusing consumers' attention on digital music in their products through millions of dollars
in advertising," said Ross Rubin, analyst at the NPD Group, via e-mail.

But
its hard to tell if Apple will be able to maintain its sizable lead as
mobile phone companies continue to put out handsets with built-in music
players. A number of analysts have warned that the digital music player
market could go the way of the PDA (personal digital assistant), which
saw growth drop off once mobile phone companies introduced smart
phones, handsets with PDA functionality.