Singapore, September 26, 2005 - Tech-savvy Singapore Internet users have eagerly embraced the launch of the new iPod Nano from Apple. Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, reports that searches on ‘ipod nano’ spiked by 388% during the week ending September 17, 2005.

In the lead up to Christmas, Hitwise Industry data reveal a notable increase in the visits to Shopping and Classifieds – Computers websites. Traffic to this category is at its highest point for the year, with growth of 53.7% in September 2005 compared to the same time last year. The launch of the iPod Nano contributed to further growth of 14% to the industry.

Visits to Apple Asia Pacific (www.asia.apple.com) increased by 68.7% between September 3 and September 17, 2005. Apple Asia Pacific ranked at 4^th position in Shopping and Classifieds – Computers for the week ending September 17, 2005. Apple Store (store.apple.com) was the most visited website after Apple Asia Pacific, with 27.36% of downstream traffic.

ilounge.com, which is dedicated to Apple's lightweight MP3 player, increased its traffic by 31.6% since the launch of the iPod Nano. The website offers news, reviews, forums, tips, tricks and downloads. The term ‘ipod nano review’ was the most popular search variation on ‘ipod nano’.

Google Singapore (www.google.com) was the most used search engine when searching for the term ‘ipod’, for the 24 week period ending September 17, 2005, however more visits to the Apple Asia Pacific website were referred by Yahoo! Singapore Search(sg.search.yahoo.com), for the week ending September 17, 2005.