iPod took the music world by storm soon after its launch. It was a runaway hit and it became one of Apple's biggest successes. Its success has been credited to Steve Job.  According to Steve Jobs's speech at Macworld Expo, more than 42 million iPods have been sold all over the world. Out of these, 14 million were sold in the first six months of 2006. iPod holds around 75% of the mp3 player market. The figures are enough to show as to what a great success it has been!

However things may change pretty soon. The sale of iPods may drop down in the future. It has to change itself according to the needs of the customer else its sales are sure to go down.

Mobile phones with music players are fast becoming popular. However as of now, mobile phones are not actually posing a threat to the standard MP3 players. The sound quality of the mobile phone is not that good. it doesn't have good space also. So it's too early to say whether they will eat away the business of iPods or not.

Things are however changing with hard-disk based phone with mp3 players. They may pose a threat to the iPods in the near future. These devices have mp3 player plus also a digital camera. It may also have PDA functionality, WiFi and 3G/EDGE. All this makes the package all the interesting for the customers.

However right now, these devices are quite expensive. They cost around $600-$800 for a 4GB hard-disk based model. Some features may be missing in them. Most of the players have digital camera (usually more than 2.0 megapixels). They also have 3G/EDGE, PIM facilities and an mp3 player! The price of this device is bound to go down with the advancement of technology. It will become affordable and it can thus hamper iPod's business greatly especially of Nano's.

These devices are very easy to carry. You actually carry 3 devices in 1 pocket. This is one of its biggest advantages. You need to charge a single device instead of charging 3 separately. The user can thus use this device easily. All its features can be utilized effectively.