Apple's iTunes leads the music download market due in no small part to its seamless integration with the company's popular iPod and iPod Mini portable music players. So far, the combined package of iTunes + iPod has given Apple investors and devotees plenty to cheer about, with the company selling virtually every iPod it manufactures and a new record of 3.3 million songs downloaded in the one week since the launch of iTunes 4.5.

This week, Sony took aim at the iTunes software package with Sony Connect. While virtually identical to iPod in terms of pricing, Connect boasts only 500,000 songs in its library compared to iTunes 700,000+.

While Connect does not appear to be any more of a competitive threat to iTunes than does Walmart, Sony does have something brewing:

[A] Sony executive said the company had also not ruled out launching its own line of hard-drive based music player — a device some observers have already dubbed an "iPod killer."

Sony's disc-based Walkman devices start at about $60, far below the iPod line, which starts at about $250.

Todd Schrader, vice president of marketing for portable audio products at Sony, said the company was "aggressively looking into a hard-drive device."

Sony is known every bit as much as Apple for its innovation in electronics, particularly in the field of portable music players. If the company can design and deliver a device that matches the functionality and style of Apple's iPod at a lower price point, there could be quite a battle brewing.

Previous articles on iPod can be found here and here.