Accessories Ride Digital Player Wave

ABC News picks up an AP story that reports "sales of accessories for portable digital players are soaring." According to NPD Group, "U.S. retail sales of accessories such as cases, speakers and car kits more than quadrupled in the first nine months of 2005 to $412 million from $87.3 million in the year-ago period."

Stephen Baker at NPD said, "Accessories it's not just throwaway stuff anymore."

NPD also found that "sales of portable digital players, led by the phenomenal popularity of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod, soared to more than $1.6 billion in the year's first nine months up 163 percent, from $581.3 million last year."

Baker noted that accessory boom was being driven by the success of the iPod. "It's all part of the iPod economy."