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The market for iPod accessories is as big as the iPod market itself. With the latest figures putting iPod sales over the 25 million mark worldwide, it's up to retailers to ride this iPod wave by promoting the variety of accessories that will appeal to its highly loyal user base.

The market is continuing to expand with additions of a Video iPod and also the iPod Nano, which has some experts revising iPod sales volume for this quarter up from 6.5m units to 10.5m units. This offers a huge new market for retailers to take advantage of.

"We estimate that between 70 to 80 per cent of iPod users currently seek out accessories of some sort, whether it be a better set of headphones, a new carrying case or a speaker system, and on average each will purchase two or three accessories per life cycle of each iPod," highlights Steve Cackett, commercial director for i-deck.

Demand has been so high for a variety of products that even the manufacturers themselves have been surprised by the sales figures.

"Since the i-deck's UK launch in July this year, preliminary sales are well ahead of our forecasted targets," adds Mr Cackett.

"Since launching our iPod range, sales have been superb from the beginning and we believe they will continue to grow and remain strong, "continues Joe Carri, managing director at Path UK.

Furthermore, although nothing is set in stone, some manufacturers believe the iPod could become more than just a fad. Some camps believe that the iPod may become a mainstay for portable entertainment.

"I hear many people saying that the iPod is reaching the end of its life span, but personally I think that it will become to music players what Windows is to PCs," notes Alan O'Rourke, managing director of Ruark, the distributor for Tivoli Audio. "The main reason for this is the superb iTunes, which allows people to sort and play their music as never before. Add a wireless network card and you can control your music from all around the house."

Indeed, this is an area of accessories that has really taken off--taking the portable aspect of the iPod and using an accessory to turn it into a music player for the home and beyond.

"There is a growing requirement to adapt the iPod for use in the home and car as a jukebox," highlights Steve Hawkins, managing director of A M Micro Distribution.

"The latest twist to the trend is the iPod party at home. With the sound reproduction and volume levels now available from high-quality iPod sound systems, dinner guests or house party goers can turn up with their preselected party play lists, dock their iPods and play for everybody's enjoyment," adds i-deck's Mr Cackett.

Although speakers are one of the most popular accessories, with i-deck and Oregon Scientific (the iBall) just two of the manufacturers offering this product, there are many other products to promote. Some of the other popular accessories include car chargers, speakers, protective cases, skins and radio transmitters.

"The core accessories remain relatively stable, FM transmitters, car chargers, speakers, ear buds and cases. There are numerous trends within each category toward continued product enhancements and certainly toward improved and more stylish cases," says Gary Bart, chief executive of Xtreme Mac.

With this in mind, there is no reason why independent retailers shouldn't take advantage of a huge sales opportunity. They even get specific support from the manufacturers, some of whom offer training support.

"Independents work harder than anyone else," notes Mark Aston, product manager for audio-video, digital media and telecoms at Oregon Scientific. "At OS we pride ourselves on providing strong in-store product training. So one area where indies can steal a march is by taking advantage of such services to offer customers greater product knowledge."

And you don't have to sell the iPods themselves in order to make money from this trend.

"A dealer doesn't necessarily have to stock iPods to see a high sell-through of accessories. A new iPod user will not necessarily go back to the shop where they bought their hardware to find accessories," says Path's Mr Carri.

"Accessories are often an impulse buy so well thought out displays in store and well placed products can significantly improve sales," he concludes.