Three years after the first release of Apple’s iPod, it still reigns supreme as the top MP3 player on the market.

Worldwide net sales of the iPod for the first quarter of 2005 alone exceeded $1.2 billion, roughly the gross domestic product of Belize.

One reason behind these colossal sales may be the release of three new iPod products in 2004 — the iPod mini, iPod photo and the U2 special edition — and the release of the iPod shuffle on Jan. 11 this year.

Nationwide, Apple stores say they have seen spikes in sales after the release of new iPod products, but even after the initial boom faded, the demand is still outpacing supply.

Computer stores at college campuses across the country also report phenomenal iPod sales. From the Arizona State computer store to the computer store at Florida State, from the Tech Shop at the University of Kansas to Iowa State’s own AIT Computer Sales, campus retailers cannot keep iPods on the shelves.

“When the shuffle came out, they were gone within two or three days,” says Hans Liburd, employee at Florida State’s computer store. “We get shipments of five or six of each color of the minis at a time, and they usually only last one or two weeks.”

Zack McDougall says he has seen the same situation at Kansas’ Tech Shop.

“Sales are definitely increasing, and continually for the last year or so we’ve had really, really high iPod sales,” he says. “Any time we get in a shipment, they’re sold out a week later.”

The popularity of the iPod does not seem to pervade the rest of the MP3 market, though — at least on college campuses. A lot of college computer stores don’t even sell MP3 players other than the iPod, and the ones that do say sales have been extremely low.

“We only sell iPods — they are by far the most popular,” says McDougall. “The price was prohibitive before, but now Apple offers so many pricing options, from the shuffle at $99 to the 60GB photo at $450. Everyone gets an iPod.”

Some campus retailers, however, have stocked other MP3 players, including Iowa State’s AIT.

“Comparative to the iPod, sales of all the other MP3 players have been minimal,” says Roy Nichols, an employee of AIT, 191 Durham Center.

Iowa State isn’t the only college whose computer store has seen slow sales on non-iPod MP3 players.

“We used to have the Dell DJ about a year ago, but it just didn’t sell,” says Florida State’s Liburd.

“No customer wants those — everyone wants the iPod.”

But why is it that everyone wants the iPod?

Its popularity may be attributed, at least in part, to a simple dancing silhouette. The silhouette, although faceless and unidentifiable, has given an identity to the iPod.

“One can look at the iPod ads and easily see it’s a very good campaign,” says Eric Einhorn, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at McCann Worldgroup, a global advertising agency based in New York. “It really finds an iconic way to represent the musical freedom that the iPod delivers.”

Jay Newell, assistant professor of journalism and communication, shares Einhorn’s praise for the iPod advertising campaign.

“IPod ads are quite striking — they have to get more attention than other ads,” says Newell, whose expertise lies in advertising. “It’s very difficult mathematically to determine how much advertising affects the sales of a product, but clearly, no one had heard of iPod before these ads, and they are extremely high-profile now.”

The merits of the iPod advertising campaign are not appreciated only in academia, however. The general consensus among campus electronics retailers is the advertisements are one of the biggest reasons for iPod’s vogue status.

“Apple is a genius at marketing,” says Brad McCauley, employee at Arizona State’s computer store.

“They always have flashy ads with music that youngsters of today are listening to.”

“I believe customers are buying it because of the ads more than anything,” says Iowa State’s Nichols, sophomore in liberal arts and sciences-open option. “Apple does make a sleek-looking product, and the features are really good, but I think it’s the ads more than anything.”

“Plus, all the cool people have iPods,” he adds jokingly.

Nichols’ joke may actually be a reality, though.

“The iPod has become a status symbol,” says Brandon Funk, wireless supervisor at Best Buy, 1220 S. Duff Ave.

“Celebrities have them; everyone has them. It has become so that you’re not ‘in’ unless you have an iPod.”

“Status symbol” is how Dan Hrivnak, senior in computer engineering, describes the iPod as well.

“It’s the thing to do,” says Hrivnak, who owns an iPod. “A lot of people hate Apple but love the iPod.”

Despite iPod’s status-symbol distinction and skyrocketing sales, Apple’s slice of the pie — apple pie, presumably — is smaller than it once was. According to market research company NPD Group, iPod’s market share is now 87 percent, down from its peak share of 92 percent in October.

With the iPod’s market share declining, is there a David out there poised to topple Goliath?

Among the possibilities for the role of David are the Dell DJ 30 and iRiver’s H340.

Nate McCarty, who owns a DJ, says he got it because it was cheaper than the iPod, and all he wanted to do with it was listen to music.

The newest 30GB version of the DJ, which was released in February, is widely thought of as the MP3 player most comparable to the iPod. It has similar storage capacity, physical size and battery life, but there is one aspect in which Dell does not rival the iPod: advertising.

“Dell isn’t as widely publicized as iPod is, so that might be why [iPod is more popular], but I’m not an expert on advertising,” says McCarty, senior in political science.

IRiver, however, is taking a step in the right direction. Although its advertisements are few and far between, they feature, as opposed to iPod’s hyperactive silhouette, adult film star Jenna Jameson — scantily clad, of course.

The iPod advertising campaign has obviously been effective, though, and its sales numbers — 4.6 million iPods sold worldwide in the first quarter of 2005, according to Apple’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission — reflect that.

The advertisements, the features and the iTunes music store, which is available exclusively with the iPod and recently surpassed 300 million songs sold, have combined to create a pop-culture icon.

The iPod craze has so vastly swept the entire nation that we may soon hear Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governator himself, refer to himself as “more American than apple pie, baseball and the iPod.”