Apple owns the music market because they invented the market. They still own the market because they're so far ahead of everybody trying to catch up, and yes, EVERYBODY is trying to catch up and get a piece of the action.
If apple seriously thinks it can go it alone against the likes of microsoft, sony, et al. (who may well do various partnerships so they can collectively work against apple) then all I can say is they will pay for their hubris. It doesn't matter if apple is better, bigger companies can sell at a loss that apple just can't afford, until apple is relegated to a very apple like position. After all, that's the story on apple computers, right? Don't underestimate the competition, apple. Just because they haven't provided anything like actual competition yet, doesn't mean they won't. Enough money and power can do most anything. Remember netscape, people?
And, honestly, what has apple to loose with this? real going to wma, that's all. Look, it's perfectly microsoftian-if apple doesn't pair with real, and by doing so sell more ipods, increase it's credibility and AAC's market share, real player will have to go to ms to avoid imminent death, courtesy of apple and microsoft. Instead, what they'll get is maybe a year of being a tool for microsoft, letting microsoft get it's foot in the door on the market while it's still a little open, until they can use rediculous ammounts of money and software bundling (deal with lawsuits later) to get their own mediocre product on the market. Then, another x billion dollars and monopolistic manipulations, and they'll own the market, just by sheer force. Prices go up, all innovation stops, microsoft gets meanwhile. Meanwhile, real buys itself another year of partial existance before getting chewed up, swallowed, digested, and regurgitated into the trash can. And sure, lots of you don't like real, and don't care if it dissapears, but really, all that ammounts to is less competition in the market (and not to apple's advantage), which makes it easier to take over, and stiffles all signs of innovation, except perhaps in marketing campaigns.
Apple, use your head. If you go it alone, you'll end up with the best product out there, for sure, and you'll sell it to 3-5% of all people buying onine music/portable players, etc. That would be tragic.
This might not even be able to stop that, but it can at least put it off for a while, sell more ipods, and give you a better chance. I'm a mac loyalist, yes, but I still have enough logic to know that no matter how rosy the situation now, and no matter how much you kick ass, you're still in danger, sooner or later. It's a profitable buisness, you've got, and everybody wants it. And you're making the best, but you really aren't so hot at what whoever wins this market will do-make something adequate, but without a high end price tag. This is america-people buy the cheapest. (wal-mart).
Now I need to go rate this thing as positive, except that I'm not sure why it was leaked, and I'm worried it might be because somebody at apple realized it's not likely to happen, but needs to.
