An initial report pointed out Hewlett Packard’s (HP) recent decision to stop retailing Apple’s iPod music players that hold majority of the share in the portable audio player market.

HP first announced its deal with Apple Computer at the Consumer Electronics Show 2004, which takes place every January in Las Vegas, Nevada. Official reports confirmed that it took HP nearly seven months to launch its branded iPods, but the company came through nonetheless.

HP added that even though it has no plans to retail Apple’s iPods anymore, it would continue to "remain committed to our digital-entertainment strategy". A spokesman further added that reselling Apple’s iPod does not fit well with company strategies.

The company said it would take at least until the August of 2006 before it can launch a competing product to the iPod due to its contract with Apple, which explicitly stated that HP couldn’t introduce a competing product to the iPod until the aforementioned time frame. Nonetheless, the company will continue selling its other digital entertainment products such as Media Center PCs and Television sets.

Even though HP is ending its iPod deal with Apple, the company said it would continue to bundle iTunes music software by default on its desktop and notebook PCs.

Apple confirmed HP’s decision and said HP branded iPods only accounted for five percent of the total number of iPods retailed, since Apple and HP’s deal back in January 2004. HP did manage to improve its percentage in the last quarter with its sales jumping to eight percent, a three percent boost overall.

Analysts said this was a logical step for HP, as HP has an identity of its own, therefore, selling someone else’s digital products do not strategize well with a company that’s known to be an "innovator". There was also the time when HP was far behind Apple with its branded models. For instance, HP did not offer color iPods even though Apple was availing them to its customers. Until this June, HP also failed to enlist the iPod Mini and iPod Shuffle in its product line.

Apple said HP would continue to support the iPods it has sold previously with warranties. HP expects the supply to end sometime in September, marking the end of HP branded iPods.