Apple, a maker of consumer electronics and personal computers, announced that it has sold 100 million iPod digital media players, marking a milestone in the success of the device. Still, it will take some time before the iPod sales will exceed those of Sony Walkman, which was sold in hundreds of millions quantity.

The first iPod was sold five and a half years ago, in November 2001, and since then Apple has introduced more than ten new iPod models, including five generations of iPod, two generations of iPod mini, two generations of iPod nano and two generations of iPod shuffle. Along with iTunes and the iTunes online music store, the iPod has transformed how tens of millions of music lovers acquire, manage and listen to their music.

The iPod has also sparked an ecosystem of over 4000 accessories made specifically for the iPod that range from fashionable cases to speaker systems, and more than 70% of 2007-model U.S. automobiles currently offer iPod connectivity.

Still, Apple’s iPod is not as successful as Sony’s Walkman brand-name, which allowed the Japanese electronics giant to sell 340 million cassette, CD and digital music players worldwide as of 2004, twenty five years after the introduction, and also enabled Sony Ericsson to sell 20 million music-centered mobile phones in one and a half years after the initial launch in August, 2005.

Apple’s iPod music players are available for $79 - $349. The company also plans to release its iPhone, a music-centered cell phone later during the year.