Apple today revealed that it has reached "long-term supply agreements" with Hynix, Intel, Micron, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba that secure the supply of Nand flash memory for its iPods through to 2010.

As part of the agreements, Apple intends to prepay a total of $1.25bn for flash memory components during the next three months.

"We want to be able to produce as many of our wildly popular iPods as the market demands," said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

Apple claimed that, with over 30 million iPods sold, the device is the world's most popular digital music player, and that iTunes is the number one online music store with over 600 million songs purchased and downloaded worldwide.

The firm added that there are more than 1,000 third-party iPod accessories currently available.