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The success comes in spite of widely publicised shortages - delivery times in the US were up to three weeks at one stage.

Apple now dominates both portable music player markets with the Flash-based shuffle and the hard drive-based iPod, iPod photo and iPod mini. It is thought that Apple has 90 per cent of the hard drive market.

As a consequence it also has, in the iTunes Music Store, the leading downloads service, with an estimated 70-75 per cent market share.

The NPD Group figures were revealed by Apple CFO Philip Oppenheimer, who added that the company is not unduly concerned by the 'threat' from music playing mobile phones. He cited the superior interface and long battery life as reasons why users will continue to choose the iPod.

Updated: The NPD Group figures relate to the US market and not, as originally stated, global sales