That would mean it is joining a parade of other major labels heading to the Internet--not just to Apple 's iTunes shop--to sell its songs.
Other big applications built on Firefox's underlying code include Songbird, an open-source version of Apple's iTunes, and Joost, a high-quality Web video channel.
While Apple Computer was free to make programs like iTunes, London-based Apple Corps said it had to stay clear of the music business if it was going to use the logo of the tangy fruit with a neat bite out of its side.
The move is widely seen as an attempt to take market share from arch-rival Apple's iTunes music store.
BBC: Amazon AutoRip service gives out free digital copies of CDs
The music companies may be growing up, with enthusiasm for the Internet driven in part by both envy of the success of Apple's iTunes store--which has sold over 5 billion songs since it opened in 2003--and by fear of losing customers to the computer company turned music kingpin.
The Kindle Store facilitates impulse subscriptions, locks readers to a single seller, and shuts competitors clean out of the process. (In this respect Amazon appears to have learned well the lessons of its sometime rival Apple and its market-dominating iTunes Store.) The larger-format Kindle Amazon will reportedly introduce this week only seems likely to accelerate that process.
Starring Hugh Bonneville, Dan Stevens and Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey has been hugely popular for Apple - season two was the best-selling TV series on iTunes last year.
You also can't find Lennon's solo work on Apple 's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) iTunes, a likely legacy of the Apple vs.
Meanwhile, only EMI sells DRM-free music on Apple's iTunes store.
On top of that, U.S. users can now purchase movie tickets through Fandango via Apple's voice-assistant Siri and iTunes Match subscribers can download individual songs to iOS devices from iCloud.
Apple's stylish iPod is the most popular digital player, with more than 4.5m sold in the last quarter of 2004 alone, and it links seamlessly with Apple's music-download service, iTunes, which sells more than 1m songs every day.
One nice aspect of iTunes Match is that even if your songs are in a lower-quality format before they go into your iTunes Match locker, Apple streams or downloads them in a relatively high-quality format.
WSJ: Apple's Music Service Stores All Your Songs Without Alot of Slow Uploads
And he said that Apple, through its iTunes and Apple stores, had access to a hundred and twenty-five million credit cards, which would make it easy for consumers to buy books on impulse.
Although conventional wisdom would have you believe that Apple's hell-bent on forcing the iTunes-iPod-iPhone ecosystem down your throat, it's really quite easy to use all kinds of other software and hardware with iTunes.
ENGADGET: Editorial: Palm, iTunes, and the ties that don't bind
Apple's iTunes has historically sold DRM-protected downloads.
According to Strategy Analytics' just-published study from the fall, it's Apple's iCloud and iTunes Match that are top dogs in the US at a combined 27 percent of usage -- a not entirely surprising lead when Apple has pushed hard on iCloud's media syncing since iOS 5, and has large swaths of market share in MP3 players and tablets, not just smartphones.
In August, when NBC Universal announced plans to yank its shows off iTunes at year-end, Apple immediately cut it off for the upcoming season.
In 2011, Apple launched its iTunes music store in the country - with high sales volumes surprising critics who assumed the region was too entrenched in a culture of pirating music.
And while Apple has not addressed the NFC or the mobile wallet opportunity, Apple does now have 435M iTunes accounts with one-click purchasing which still makes it a heavy-weight contender in mobile payments when it decides to move.
FORBES: Apple iPhone 5 and Stunning New iPods Set Stage for Strongest December Quarter Ever
For more than a year, Apple and Motorola's plans to release an iTunes-enabled phone have tantalized the music and mobile phone businesses.
In an essay on his personal site that's been circulating the interwebs, Marc Deslauriers outlines the pangs he and the Linux community have felt over the years trying to use iPods on the open source platform, surmising that Apple is intentionally and repeatedly seeking ways to block non-iTunes programs from syncing in any way with its devices.
On the one hand the iPod, Apple's now legendary music-player, and its associated iTunes store opened up a new market for legal digital-music downloads.
Apple Corps , the Beatles' music company, said it would appeal a judge's ruling to allow Apple Computer to continue displaying its multi-coloured logo on its iTunes digital music site.
If Apple keeps growing the way it has, it may be too big for the media giants to ignore: Apple has 160 million credit-card numbers on file thanks to iTunes, while Comcast (CMCSA) has 23 million.
Former CEO of the RIAA Hilary Rosen is mad, real mad, that Apple has established a lock-in between the iPod and the iTunes Music Store: all those tracks she downloaded from walmart.com just will not work on her brand new iPod.
ENGADGET: Former RIAA chief makes plea for "consumer rights"
For someone with a lot of cash invested in a collection of iTunes media, the Apple TV seems a solid -- if pricey -- buy, but for most people with more diverse media collections and saner pocketbooks, this is a hard one to recommend.
It certainly isn't inconceivable that Apple will start selling high-def video through some sort of iTunes-like online store ( Steve Jobs talked a lot about HD during his Macworld keynote this past January), but an Apple satellite network (at least as described) just sounds like some Apple fanboy's wet dream.
ENGADGET: Apple's working on a high-definition video network?
Working closely with Apple, Motorola will also show the second generation of its iTunes-compatible phones.
ENGADGET: Switched On: Motorola's cell phones keep getting BETR
应用推荐