Apple's iPod king of consumer electronics again in '06

Apple Computer's iPod remained king of consumer electronics in 2006, according to an annual list of bestselling products released Thursday by online retailer Amazon.com.

For the third straight year, the chic digital music players captured top honors under multiple categorizations, including the bestselling consumer electronics gadget overall throughout the year.

Apple's 30GB fifh-generation video iPod attained dual accolades. It was the most frequently purchased electronics gift in 2006, while the black-colored model was also awarded the title of the "most wished-for gift" — appearing most often on the Wish Lists of Amazon customers in 2006.

Last year, the 2GB black iPod nano bested all other gadgets in the bestsellers category while the 20GB video iPod was the most requested electronics item by the reseller's customers. The 512MB first-generation iPod shuffle also took honors as the most frequently purchased electronics gift.

As of Thursday evening, Apple's Mac line was also the most prominent PC brand listed on Amazon's list of top selling computers. Macs dominated the upper echelon of the rankings with six out of the top ten spots, including the No. 1 and No. 2 positions overall.

In a report released earlier this week, market share research firm Hitwise suggested that strong holiday sales of iPods caused an incredible surge in traffic to portions of Apple.com. The firm said traffic to the company's iTunes website on Christmas Day was up 413 percent when compared to last Christmas, as surfers wielding new iPods flocked to the web to download iTunes.

The flood of new users was also enough to overwhelm the company's iTunes Store for a period of about 48 hours, according the Associated Press. The media outlet reported Wednesday that a wave of new iPod- and iTunes gift card-bearing customers caused sporadic error messages and long delays for some shoppers who were trying to download songs.

"Some financial analysts said the interruption could be viewed as a sign that sales dramatically exceeded the Cupertino-based company's own forecasts," the AP said.