Ben Reid
5 Sep 2006 15:51
South Korean-based firm Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced on Friday plans to introduce its own online music service to compete with Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store - currently at the summit of the online music market.
It plans to link up with with media provider MusicNet to launch a music subscription and download service later this year in the UK, Germany, and France. Samsung said it plans to later expand the service throughout Europe and Asia.
It also said the online music service will be compatible with its upcoming line of portable MP3 and media players, a concept similar not only to Apple's iPod + iTunes Music Store combination, but also to Microsoft's upcoming plans for it's Zune service, announced in July.
"Apple has shown that to do this, you have to control as many of the parts of the chain as possible," said Mike McGuire, an analyst at Gartner Inc. market research firm. "Microsoft is taking a page out of Apple's book, and now Samsung is, too."
There are no additional details regarding pricing or fees yet.
Source:
newsfactor