Samsung's digital media chief Choi Gee-sung said that media reports of Samsung opening an online music store similar to iTunes earlier in the week were incorrect, and there had been a misunderstanding.

"We are not at all interested in a music service," Choi said to reporters outside of an analyst meeting. Instead, he said the company plans to offer technical assistance to pre-existing music stores in order to enhance the experience for users, and at the same time increase its own hardware sales.

Some analysts had criticized Samsung over its deal with Apple to provide flash memory chips for the Shuffle and Nano players, saying the parternship was cannibalizing its own music player sales.

The company expects to sell about five million players this year, which amounts to a sixth of the expected sales of Apple's iPod line. The iPod's success has already claimed one victim; Rio dropped out of the digital music business at the end of September.

Choi continued to say that he thought that Microsoft-based players could compete with the iPod, but so far companies had failed to produce competitive iTunes-like software.

Most credit the simplicity and tight integration between the iPod and iTunes as much of the reason why the now-ubiquitous device has done so well in the marketplace.