While analysts expect Apple's explosive iPod growth to eventually plateau in the United States, plenty of opportunities remain in such countries as China, India and other emerging markets. As Troy Wolverton explained for TheStreet.com, the company's success in those nations "depends on how well it convinces overseas consumers that the iPod is as hip to have in China or India as it is in the U.S."

Apple's U.S. market share in the MP3 players market was 73% last year, but Mr. Wolverton estimates that it was just 16.5% worldwide, with 57% of the iPods sold in 2005 going to overseas consumers. He added that while retail sales of the devices grew 170% in the U.S. last year, they rose by almost 270% worldwide, according to numbers supplied by research firm iSuppli.

Mr. Wolverton noted, however, that piracy remains one of the biggest obstacles in such countries as China and Russia, where "pirated music content with no software protections attached is widely available with little scrutiny from government authorities," he wrote. iSuppli analyst Chris Cotty told the reporter that "part of Apple's success in the U.S. followed the crackdown here on unregulated sharing of music files on sites such as the original Napster."

As a consequence, "in a country like China, where you get all this content for free, it doesn't matter whose player you pick," Mr. Crotty said. In fact, such nations have many low-cost, generic equivalents to the iPod, especially when looking at competitors to the iPod shuffle. With margins razor-thin, it might not make sense for the company to compete in that area, Gartner analyst Jon Erensen told him.

Among higher-end players, however, Apple "would love to get piece of that market, as long as it makes sense," Mr. Erensen said.