Tesco aims to take a bite out of Apple&#39;s iTunes
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Supermarket group Tesco is launching itself into the world of digital music with an online download service designed to take on the might of Apple&#39;s iTunes.
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Online retailer Play.com launches a music download service that aims to take on market leader iTunes.
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In a global economy where consumers  are holding back, Britain's biggest food retailer Tesco   is gearing up for increased competition with its U.S.  rivals, a senior executive said on Wednesday.
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The OFT refers Apple's iTunes to the European Commission on the grounds that it over-charges UK customers.
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The competition watchdog has called for an investigation into whether Apple&#39;s new iTunes music download service is &quot;ripping off&quot; British consumers.
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(InfoWorld) - U.K. supermarket chain Tesco Stores will launch six PC software applications under its own brand, including a word processor and antivirus software, later this month. The software packages will sell for under Â£20 ($37), and will include free online support via e-mail. British "white label" software distributor Formjet will supply and support the software, through its subsidiary Formjet Innovations. Formjet holds the U.K. rights to distribute Panda Software's antivirus tools and Ability Plus Software's word processor and office applications, among others. It founded the Innovations subsidiary to sell versions of the software under other companies' brands. Formjet has software partners in 16 countries, and is looking for other sales outlets, company spokesman Graham O'Reilly said on Monday. "At the moment we're concentrating on the U.K., and we are talking to other retail partners," he said. For Tesco, Formjet has branded the software's packaging, code and online help with the supermarket chain's name, O'Reilly said. In a market where technical support is increasingly outsourced to offshore destinations with lower labor costs, Formjet has set up its support team south of London, in Crawley. "It's become quite a feature, these days, to say it's U.K.-based support," O'Reilly said. The company keeps support costs down by handling everything by e-mail. Customers "get an automated reply with the top ten answers based on the subject line of their e-mail," O'Reilly said. Typically, that's enough to deal with around half the questions the company receives: staff deal with the other half, he said. The antivirus and security software packs will include one year's e-mail support and software updates, he said. After that, customers can renew their subscription online or buy another pack at the supermarket. Formjet will impose no time limit on e-mail support for the other applications, he said. Even at such a low price, it's doubtful that Tesco will gain much market share, one analyst said, pointing to Microsoft's continued dominance of the office software market, despite the availability of competing applications for much lower prices, or even for free. "Many low-cost or free packages exist in each category, yet products that are many times the price of the cheapest option continue to dominate," David Mitchell of Ovum wrote in an e-mail. If it is to win customers, Tesco must make sure its applications can read and write files compatible with Microsoft's Office suite, he said. The software won't look out of place on Tesco's shelves: the supermarket already sells mobile phones, and is an Internet service provider, Internet telephony operator, and mobile virtual network operator.
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Microsoft is looking to take a bite out of Apple&#39;s lion&#39;s share of the digital-music marketplace with three new products that promise to do whatever Apple&#39;s iTunes and iPod can do, and more.
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Apple&#39;s announcement last week of the iTunes Affiliate Program, iTunes on Campus, and the iTunes Volume Discount program represents the next escalation in what is turning into a heated battle for control of the Internet music services (which is somewhat
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Handset-to-handset fighting Whenever a single monolithic company has launched against the globe spanning iTunes, Apple has been able to move the goalposts and push further and further towards a monopolistic market share of online music, but this week a genuine challenge has emerged, one that we are certain will dent the success of Apple, and we suspect that it will be reflected in the companyâs share price before too long.â¦
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Apple&#39;s iTunes Music Store is causing a bit of a stir by refusing to sell the charity Band Aid song &quot;Do They Know It&#39;s Christmas?
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The UK&#39;s number one supermarket chain, Tesco, has unveiled a new online digital music download store. The store, which will be operated by Cable &amp; Wireless, will remain under the Tesco.
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The launch of the Microsoft digital-music store takes direct aim at Apple Computer&#39;s dominant iTunes service, setting off a battle of the bands between the online music sellers and their rock-star frontmen -- Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
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TESCO'S policy of sending money-off vouchers to customers who buy a lot of wine has been questioned by a group of MPs.   John Denham, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, said the supermarket risked cajoling those with alcohol problems tobuy more drink.
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A BRITISH consumer has complained to government regulators about the cost of downloading music from Apple&#39;s iTunes Music Store.
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Tesco and Disney join forces to launch a range of co-branded food products, starting with fruit.
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Apple's iTunes music download service is accused by the Consumers' Association of overcharging UK users.
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A consumer group in the United Kingdom has requested that authorities investigate iTunes' pricing schedule.