Apple's Outside Chance

With pirated songs more difficult to come by, Apple has been able to tie in customers to music bought through its iTunes store, which can only be played on iPod music players.

But "in a country like China, where you get all this content for free, it doesn't matter whose player you pick," says Crotty.

As a result, many consumers in those countries are buying inexpensive digital music players, analysts say. Although Apple has a low-end player in the Shuffle, comparable unbranded players in China and other markets are sold at a fraction of the cost of the Shuffle, whose entry model costs around $70 in the U.S.

Gartner predicts that the worldwide market for digital music players in terms of units produced will grow from about 130 million last year to about 200 million this year.

"A lot of this is being driven by low-end players," says Jon Erensen, an analyst with market research firm Gartner.

While Apple might want to compete in that market, it might not make sense for the company financially, he says. "When you get down to those prices, the margins get pretty thin," says Erensen.

Still, even if Apple merely sticks to higher-end segments, the company has a chance to cash in. "It would love to get piece of that market, as long as it makes sense," Erensen says.

Here's your chance to pick the stock you'd like me to feature on my radio show March 9: Ciena JDSU Kohl's AT&T Nabors Abercrombie & Fitch

REMEMBER to listen in on Thursday for my take on the stock that wins this poll!

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints