musicNEWS:
Apple’s iTunes Officially Does Windows
10-16-03
Keavin
.
On Thursday, Apple Chief Steve Jobs unveiled
his company’s “insanely great” iTunes Music Store service for Windows.
Since its launch in April, the commercial
music download service has been a runaway success capturing over 2/3rds
of the market for legitimate music downloads. This was down while only
being available to 3% of computer users that own Apple computers.
That is all about to change as Apple has
now ported their service to work with Windows machines, opening up their
store to vast untapped installed based of “Win-Tel” users.
Apple has an edge over their would be competitors
like the new Napster, they managed to ink some exclusive deals to help
cement their lead in the legal download market. One deal includes an exclusive
partnership with America Online which links the internet service providers
AOL Music site to the iTunes store.
Apple has sold over 13 million songs since
they launched the service in late April. They are hoping that Windows users
prove as enthusiastic to the idea of being able to purchase songs for $0.99
each as their loyal Mac users have been.
Jobs, who is known for his grand pronouncements,
says he hopes to sell 100 million songs by the first anniversary of iTunes
and never shy about touting Apple’s superiority added, "iTunes is probably
the best Windows application ever."
Jobs called out the celebrities to help
with the announcement in San Francisco on Thursday. Sarah McLachlan performed
live and Jobs held video conferences with Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones,
Bono of U2 and rapper Dr. Dre.
The iTunes store will also add audio books
to their offerings with an exclusive deal with Audible.com and also offering
a way for parents to set up account for their children to use the service
with a set monthly “allowance”.
Will the Windows market adopt iTunes with
the passion of the Mac crowd? That remains to be seen but knowing
Jobs and Apple they will attack the mission like it is a holy crusade.
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