HP to stop selling iPods

HP said on Friday it will end its deal with Apple to sell iPod players.

The deal, unveiled with much fanfare at the January 2004 Consumer Electronics Show, took awhile to get going, with HP not announcing its first product under the deal until August of that year.

"We do remain committed to our digital-entertainment strategy," said HP spokesman Ross Camp. "We decided that reselling the iPod does not fit within that strategy."

The company plans to keep selling its iPods through the end of September, when it expects to have sold its entire iPod, iPod mini and iPod shuffle inventory. But HP said it will continue shipping Apple iTunes software on its desktop and notebook computers as it has done since last year.

Apple confirmed this and said HP's iPod sales accounted for 5 percent of all iPods sold since the deal was initiated in January 2004. More info at CNET