Digital Music News is reporting that

Creative Technologies CEO Sim Wong Hoo recently stated that his company is on track to sell 8 million MP3 players in 2005. To put that number in perspective, the iPod sold more than double that figure (17.9 million) in the first three quarters of this year. According to analysts, Apple is expected to sell somewhere between 25 and 27 million iPods by year’s end, though some are even more bullish. That represents a sizeable lead, though the figures from Creative contradict the miniscule market share that most iPod competitors are assumed to have.

The suspicion is that some non-iPod MP3 players are really doing better than many think.