Samsung Electronics will roll out six new models in the MP3 music player market in the second half of ’05 and plans up to 10 more next year to catch up with leader Apple Computer, an official said on Thursday.

Samsung Electronics introduced six new additions to its eight-model range of Yepp players in the first six months, in an effort to treble its annual sales to more than 5m units. But the target is still a sixth of the expected ’05 sales of rival Apple iPod player. The thumb to pocket-sized gadgets of both Samsung and Apple also face growing competition from mobile phone makers, who are adding MP3 music functions to high-end models.

“We will have a total of 12 new MP3 models this year and plan to introduce 5-to-7 flash type models and some two hard disk drive models in ’06,” Park Hyun-joo, an assistant manager of the Seoul-based company’s marketing division, said.

Samsung has been striving to win market share in the fast-growing and profitable MP3 market, which the South Korean company estimated at 45m units in ’05.