Apple’s online music store

So Apple sold over 1 million songs on its new online music store (iTunes) during the first week of operation. (They also sold 20,000 of the new iPods over the weekend.) Apple set the standard for MP3 players, and now they seem to be doing the same for online music distribution. Though I’ve always been a fan of Apple, I can’t help wondering if they’re about to miss another huge opportunity, like they did by letting Windows rule the world. That’s because iTunes Music Store only works with Apple computers right now – about 5% of the market. The other 95% of the market has to deal with the record companies’ pathetic services. Or they can go the free, and illegal way of using one of the Napster successors. Yesterday the CEO of RealNetworks was all over TV pointing this out. He claims that his company will be coming to market with a service that will rival iTunes. Their service will of course be compatible with Windows. (the stock, RNWK, got a 12% pop on that news) Apple says that a Windows version of iTunes will be unveiled later this year. I just hope that they don’t get ‘windowed’ all over again.