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iPod's total market share of high-end, hard drive-based digital music players was down slightly in September, but Apple retains overwhelming control of this market, Macworld UK reports.

The sales statistics from NPD show the iPod with 87.3% with the HP-branded iPod on 3.6%. This represents a slight decline on iPod's market share of 92% for August, when HP had not yet released the HPod.

The small decrease in market share was partly attributed to constraints on product supply during the month. Recently, Apple CEO Steve Jobs urged prospective iPod purchasers to get their Xmas orders in early. Yesterday, IGM reported that Merrill Lynch expected Apple to sell 2.87 million iPods this quarter.

At the other end of the spectrum, an iPod competitor, the Rio, managed to grab a miserable 2.8% market share, a 0.5% rise.

The article also notes the rise of flash-based players, which saw 21% market growth over the previous month.

Analysis: And if Apple does grab 2.8-3 million sales this quarter, that doubles the user base and gives iPod even more critical mass - which means developers and third-party manufacturers build even more apps, plug-ins and add-ons for the Little Music Player That Could.