April 3 - 4:30pm EDT   Earlier reports of the iTunes Store's success are true; Apple has officially said that NPD discovered the media store's dominance over industry giant Wal-Mart during a study. The report states that Apple's 50 million customers have moved over four billion songs from the world's largest music catalogue of over 6 million songs. The study accounts for individual tracks under the assumption that a typical CD contains 12 music tracks, and based over sales in January and February. [full story]

February 25 - 7:30pm EST   Analysis of the first month of March quarter iPod NPD data points to iPod sales of between 9.5-10.3 million, according to research firm Piper Jaffray, which would signal a 6 percent year-over-year decline. "While it is way too early to make a definitive call on March quarter iPod units, we have analyzed the first month of NPD data (Jan.) for the quarter and found that it suggests iPod units of 9.5m-10.3m," said Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster. Wall Street consensus on iPod sales for Apple's March quarter currently stand at 10.8 million units, representing a 2 percent year-over-year increase. [full story]

December 24 - 8:35am EST   Sales of most handheld media players have dropped during the holiday season just as sales for nearly every other consumer electronics category is climbing upwards, according to a new report from The NPD Group. Tracking sales between November 18th and December 9th -- typically regarded the first half of the holiday shopping period -- the research firm noted that the portable media market declined on average by 16 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. The lone exception is the iPod line, NPD says. Though growth is not as strong as for past years, the Apple device is believed to be countering the downward trend. The group has not published figures for ... [full story]