Apple Plans EU Expansion of iTunes Next Month
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Apple Computer is planning the next wave of expansion for its popular iTunes online music store with a multi-country European launch in October, the services chief architect said on Wednesday.
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Apple Inc  is to open new retail  stores in Germany, Switzerland and Ireland following its  successful European launches in Britain and Italy, a spokesman  said on Monday.
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Apple has responded to a midnight Wednesday deadline in relation to antitrust concerns over the pricing of songs on its iTunes online music store across different European countries. The European Commission has expressed concerns about Apple setting unfair iTunes pricing prohibiting users in one country from downloading music from a website intended to serve another. A European commission spokesperson said: "They answered yesterday and we are studying [the response] carefully at this point."
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As music growth shows signs of slowing, Jobs looks to extend its iTunes formula to movies and the living room. By Pete Mortensen. Plus: Check out our Apple Keynote blog.
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Universal Music Group is seeking a month-by-month licensing deal with Apple Inc.'s iTunes that would no longer guarantee the online music seller access to all Universal content, a person familiar with the negotiations said Monday.
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With plans to enter Europe by the end of the year, Apple could be ready to announce who gets to carry the iPhone.
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A European Union version of Apple&#146;s iTunes Music Store gives music fans in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain the same innovative features and breakthrough price of &#8364;0.99 per song that have made iTunes the number one online music service in the world. Apple will launch the iTunes Music Store in Canada in November. [Oct 26]
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An industry analyst expects the first iPhones to hit Europe in October.
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(InfoWorld) - Apple and four of the biggest record companies have until Wednesday to submit their written response toÂ antitrust charges that they restricted online sales of musicÂ in Europe. The deadline originally expired at the beginning of June, but was extended by two weeks at the request of Apple and three of the record companies, European Commission competition spokesman Jonathan Todd said Monday. The Commission is still waiting for replies from these four companies. The one record company that didn't request an extension has already submitted its written response, Todd said. The Commission has declined to name the record companies involved but they are assumed to be the four majors: Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music, and EMI Group. "We have every reason to believe that the remaining companies will reply by the new deadline," Todd said. Downloads from Apple's iTunes Web site are priced differently in different countries in the Union but consumers are prevented from shopping around and have to make their purchases of music from the iTunes site in the country they are based. The Commission said that in the single European market the distribution agreements between the record companies and Apple could amount to restrictive practices. Apple claims it has always tried to operate a single pan-European iTunes store accessible by anyone from any member state but has been prevented from doing so by the record labels and publishers.ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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ITunes users must upgrade starting today if they wish to purchase or download songs from the ITunes Music Store, according to Apple.
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The European Commission ended its&#160;antitrust investigation into Apple&#160;after the company agreed to reduce the price of music downloads from its iTunes Web site in the U.K., the European Union&#39;s antitrust regulator said Wednesday.Apple said that within six months it will lower the prices it charges for music on its U.K. iTunes Store to match its&#160;already standardized pricing across Europe&#160;in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and SpainUntil now iTunes has been more expensive in the U.K., where the currency remains the British pound, than in the countries that have adopted the euro, as well as compared to Denmark and Sweden which tie their currencies closely to the euro, and also more expensive than in Switzerland, which isn&#39;t even in the European Union.The European Commission welcomed Apple&#39;s plan to equalize prices for downloads of songs from the store in Europe.&quot;The Commission is very much in favor of solutions which allow consumers to benefit from a truly Single Market for music downloads,&quot; competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement.For Apple, &quot;This is an important step towards a pan-European marketplace for music,&quot; said Steve Jobs, the company&#39;s &#39;s CEO. &quot;We hope every major record label will take a pan-European view of pricing.&quot;Apple blames the record labels for charging more to distribute their music in the U.K. than in other countries in Europe, and threatened to drop any record label from the iTunes portal if they didn&#39;t cut their U.K. prices.&quot;Apple will reconsider its continuing relationship in the U.K. with any record label that does not lower its wholesale prices in the U.K. to the pan-European level within six months,&quot; the company warned.
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Apple updated iTunes, shipping version 7.4 for Mac and Windows systems.
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&quot;We&#39;re excited to bring the iTunes Music Store to even more music fans across Europe, and with this expansion we now reach customers in almost 70 percent of the global music market,&quot; Apple&#39;s Vice President of Applications Eddy Cue said.
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Microsoft responded quickly to Apple&#39;s recent European expansion for its iTunes service by launching its own online music service MSN Music in eight European countries.
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&quot;We are well on pace to launch more EU stores. We will do it next month,&quot; Eddie Cue, Apple&#39;s vice president of applications, told music executives at the annual Popkomm conference in Germany.
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Apple Computer is planning the next wave  of expansion for its popular iTunes online music store with a  multi-country European launch in October, the services chief  architect said on Wednesday.
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Apple Inc is calling a London news  conference next Tuesday as speculation mounts that the U.S.  consumer electronics guru will unveil long-awaited plans to  bring its iconic iPhone cell phones to Europe.