APPLE revealed two new music players yesterday which it hopes will secure its dominance of the digital music market.
The hi-tech firm's pencil-thin 'iPod nano' and a long-anticipated mobile phone that plays music like an iPod, are both aimed at extending domination of the digital music market.
Apple has about 75pc of the market for digital music players, with iPod sales accounting for about one-third of its total revenue.
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said competitors had set their sights on the iPod mini, which he said was Apple's best-selling iPod model.
He said that in 2006, some 30pc of all new US cars will sport stereos that can easily connect to iPods.
The seriously slimmed-down nano - a quarter of an inch (0.6 cm) thick, 3.5 inches (9 cm) long and 1.5 inches (4 cm) wide - wowed the audience at its product release in San Francisco, outdoing the buzz generated by Apple's Rokr phone, which some said failed to meet high expectations for designs.
The nano is nearly as small as the entry-level iPod Shuffle, but can hold up to 1,000 songs.
The nano replaces the mini, and Gartner analyst Van Baker said that Apple - which has sold 21 million iPods since introducing them in 2001 - has moved the goal posts farther down the field with the nano. "It changes the rules of the game," Mr Baker said.
The iPod nano uses flash memory chips to store songs and photos, rather than the hard-disk drives that the iPod mini and the larger iPods use.
The Rokr phone is Apple's long-awaited foray into the wireless realm. Developed with Motorola, it can store up to 100 songs and has a color screen, stereo speakers and headphones and a camera. But some said the silver phone did not meet style expectations set by Apple's iPod and Motorola's slim flagship Razr phone, and others cited its limited song capacity for iPod users accustomed to carrying thousands of songs.
No 1 US mobile service Cingular Wireless will be the exclusive US carrier of the phone, which it will sell for $249.99 (€202) to customers who sign up for a two-year service contract.
The phone does not allow wireless downloads, but does eliminate the need to carry two separate gadgets.
Motorola said the phone would be available in the UK at Carphone Warehouse stores in mid-September, and through operators such as O2, Orange, BT Mobile and Virgin Mobile this month or next.
Music is expected to be one of the hottest new features in mobile phones, which already sport everything from cameras to video players. Apple has to keep up a steady pace of innovative music products to maintain the level of growth investors now expect.
Apple said it was teaming with car makers Acura, Audi, Honda and Volkswagen to integrate its iPod products into their car stereos for 2006 model lines.
