Sony nibbling away iPod's popularity in Japan

Japanese electronics giant Sony has secured the top position for flash memory based digital audio players in May and June, beating the Apple iPod shuffle into second place. Sony's new digital audio players with capacities of 256MB, 512MB and 1GB that were launched a few months ago have become a success.

They have a better design as the iPod shuffle and can play up to 50 hours of music on a single AAA battery.

“There is no question that Sony has the potential of being much more competitive,” said Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, a U.S.-based research firm. “It could emerge as a more formidable rival to Apple over the next three years.”

Sony's share in the Japanese flash memory players market went from only 4 percent in March to 16 percent in April and settled at 27 percent in May and June. Apple's share fell under 20 percent. However, Apple is still the leader in the HDD based segment in Japan with its iPod and iPod mini and European and American demand for Sony's new players is still lacking. More details at MSNBC