A combination of a great user interface, the best GB for the buck, and the invaluable "cool factor" will keep Apple's line of iPod portable media players at the front of the pack for years to come, a prominent research analyst said yesterday.

In a research note, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster examined the MP3 player competitive landscape and concluded that comparable players could not compete with the iPod. As a result, he maintained an "outperform" rating and $79 price target on the company.

The iPod's current market-share dominance of more than 75 percent will be difficult to combat, Munster said.

"Apple has such massive relative shipment volume with the iPod that other MP3 player manufacturers are not able to replicate the economies of scale achieved by Apple," Munster said. "We believe this reality will allow Apple to sell iPods at the lowest prices in the market, thus retaining the iPod's pole position for years."

Munster said he was impressed by some of the features in Creative Technology's new 30GB Zen Vision:M, but noted that it costs $329.99--$30 more than the price of Apple's 30GB iPod.

"Apple's 30GB iPod provides the lowest cost per gigabyte at $10, followed by Creative's Zen Vision:M at $11," he said. "It should be noted though that the Zen Vision:M has a few more features (i.e., personal organizer, recorder, more song storage, more hours of video, and an FM tuner) than the iPod."

The latest iPod and the Zen Vision:M bear striking similarities, and Creative boss Sim Wong Hoo seemed ready for a legal tussle with Apple last week when he introduced the new device.

He told the BBC News he plans to "pursue aggressively" a US patent the company garnered in August on a system used to navigate music on digital players. The US patent is for the interface within which songs are organized and navigated on a music player using a hierarchical system of three or more screens.

Nonetheless, the iPod should continue to dominate the market, Munster said.

"While non-iPod devices often have similar, if not broader (for example: an FM tuner), feature sets than the iPod, none of these devices have shown that they can compete in two key areas: user interface and 'cool' factor," he said.