The use of the word "still" in the title really isn't necessary. iTunes isn't going to lose enough market share in just a few months to Amazon.com to drop below Wal-Mart. From today's NPD press release:

1. iTunes
2. Wal-Mart (Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads)
3. Best Buy (Best Buy, Bestbuy.com, Best Buy Digital Music Store)
4. Amazon (Amazon.com, AmazonMP3.com)
5. Target (Target and Target.com)

Amazon.com moved from up one spot to #4 for two reasons: Online CD sales are stronger than brick-and-mortar CD sales, and the performance of its MP3 store. NPD used only the words "successful introduction" to describe the performance of the MP3 store, which is the subject of frequent guessing games about its share of the download market.

NPD bases its rankings on unit sales, not dollar value (no doubt a far easier way to do it). Given the higher sales prices of physical product compared to digital downloads, ranking retailers by revenue could lead to a different outcome. In addition, NPD converts individual tracks to albums at the rate of 12 to 1. The average album may have 12 tracks, but ten tracks have the same wholesale and retail value as an album download. Using a conversion factor of 12 rather than ten results in lower numbers for download stores.