Industry insiders say the world-wide MP3 accessory market is destine to become a half billion dollar business by the close of the 2005 calendar year. Apple, whose iPod digital music player dominates the MP3 player market, is looking to reap some of the benefits of this capitalization through an iPod marketing campaign it will roll-out sometime in the next two months.
The campaign, which Apple announced last January, introduced a "Made for iPod" certification (or badge) that iPod accessory manufactures can display to differentiate their Apple-authorized accessories from those that have not been approved by the iPod maker. In recent months, the iPod accessory market has been met with a proliferation of low-quality iPod accessories that, in some cases, have proven to be hazardous to Apple"s iPod hardware, even when used as instructed.