GLOBAL sales of MP3 players will double this year rising to more than 20 million machines.

According to a new report by Informa Media, sales will continue to grow at an average rate of nearly 45 per cent a year for the next six years.

By 2010, sales worldwide will top 194 million units.

A study on "The Future of Portable Music" underlined the strong trend away from removable media, such as CDs and cassettes, to digital audio players.

Almost limitless restrictions on track capacity as well as robustness are just two key factors, the report suggested, that will lead consumers away from removable media.

Said the report's author, senior research analyst Simon Dyson: "If recent forecasts for digital sales growth are accurate, incompatibility of some downloads could become an issue in the very near future."

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