Running scared or just bullish?

Apple's iPod Shuffle - its new flash-based MP3 player - has ruffled more than a few feathers, not least among its rivals who suddenly have a horrible vision of their whole market share collapsing.

Will the iPod Shuffle be a success thanks to Apple's canny marketing of a product which has been around for four years in various forms or will it lose out to players with more features for more money?

Companies such as Creative and Rio would like to think the latter but you can just smell the fear from their response to the Shuffle.

"We were very surprised that they would release a player with a limited feature set," said one particularly naive PR drone from Creative.

That's exactly the sort of lack of understanding - that mass-market consumers want simple, well-designed products - which has hindered pioneers like Creative. Looks as if they're going to stand by and allow their market to be owned by Apple all over again.