James Delahunty
7 Sep 2005 5:26
Apple Computers has boasted that its iTunes music store has 80% of the music download market share in the UK. However, Apple didn't release the market share details just for fun, the company may be a tad bit worried about the new competition it has with HMV and Virgin. Both high street retailers launched their own music download services and Apple is worried that the credit both stores have from selling music in the UK, could mean that both might take a chunk out of Apple 80% market share.
Apple also announced that the iTunes music store has now got 1.7 million songs on offer for UK customers, putting it ahead of Napster that has 1.6 million songs available for download. Even Napster felt it necessary to release a statement after the recent launch of the HMV and Virgin music stores, releasing the statistics of its 15 month history of availability in the UK.
The reason that both services are slightly worried about the new stores, is that both HMV and Virgin sell massive amounts of music stored on physical media in the UK, and customers who still have never purchased music might be more interested in purchasing from a company that they purchased music from in the past.
Source:
The Register