iTMS Denmark | Poland | Netherlands In October?

[Raid]

So far, Apple has yet to negotiate a deal for a Japanese or Canadian localization of the store.

ARGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

<channeling Austin Powers>Who do I have shag to get iTMS in Canada baby?</channeling Austin Powers>

Next week we'll probably read about how iTMS is now available in Mongolia.

I think I'll move to Mongolia then, it looks like they will get a iTMS quicker than Canada.

 

[Dahl]

I can absolutely GUARANTEE you that only the ridiculously filthy rich people would even CONSIDER spending about 45 Rs. ($1) on ONE song. Couple this with the fact the "broadband" in India means 40-128 kbps, and iTMS is just NOT gonna' work.

"Middle Class" there would be considered about 60000 Rs/Year, or about $1500 a year. My guess is this is roughly equivalent to a U.S. salary of $30,000.

Add this to the fact that no one really cares if you download music off the internet there, and India has a long way to go before it becomes a good place for iTMS.

I agree.

iTMS in India seems more like a PR stunt than anything else.

 

[FoxyKaye]

As a former Russian and Eastern European Studies major, all I can say is "iTunes in the old Eastern Bloc, oh yeah!"

I bet the producers of "The Day After" never thought this day would come.

 

[Belly-laughs]

The significance here is that they're launching in Poland. I can't see that there would be a huge demand there ...

Remember Poland has a population of 38.6M, Denmark on the other hand only has 5.4M. Although Denmark and other Western European countries are better off economically, the population (especially the young) of Poland and other Eastern European countries are adapting quickly to modern ways of living and consuming. Probably even more than the average Dane. I guess only time will tell.

 

[fukuhela]

Remember Poland has a population of 38.6M, Denmark on the other hand only has 5.4M. Although Denmark and other Western European countries are better off economically, the population (especially the young) of Poland and other Eastern European countries are adapting quickly to modern ways of living and consuming. Probably even more than the average Dane. I guess only time will tell.

I'm pretty sure the polish people are adapting a lot faster to 'modern ways' of living than the danish people given that the danes (as the rest of western Europe) all ready lives in 'modern ways'

I'm more concerned about microsoft beating Apple at getting first because they get a lot more attention than other companies. So if Micsrosoft gets here first they will run with all the attention i'm afraid.....

 

[obimk1]

I like that the Itms is coming to nl at last.
The freerecordshop has some nice stuff like peter pan speedrock, but I am
curious about the itms offerings..I guess we just have to ait and see..

obimk1

 

[whooleytoo]

Remember Poland has a population of 38.6M, Denmark on the other hand only has 5.4M. Although Denmark and other Western European countries are better off economically, the population (especially the young) of Poland and other Eastern European countries are adapting quickly to modern ways of living and consuming. Probably even more than the average Dane. I guess only time will tell.

Indeed - with Poland now in the EU, things should start improving dramatically there. Though, perhaps, not in time for the iTMS launch!

 

[manu chao]

beats the polish zloty, no ? i seem to have read somewhere that on a per capita basis there is the highest number of macs in this tiny alpine country. given the standard of living here, i reckon that apple would get most money out of here - i may be mistaken though - no hard feelings, poland, we love you

To give you an impression about the market share of Apple in certain areas in Switzerland: At a joined project of several Swiss universities, offering their students selected laptop modells (three IBM modells and all of Apple's offerings) at discounted prices, they sold 2538 IBM-laptops and 3698 Power- and i-Books.

One reason why the iTMS will/would be very popular in Switzerland, are the high retail prices here. A CD at a high street store will easily cost you $25 with special offers on new releases maybe at $20. At $12.5 (=10 Euro) the price for a complete CD would quite a bargain, not even to speak from the comparison of the price of a handfull of individual songs to that of a real CD.

Naturally, this assumes that the Swiss would simply get access to a pan-European store with prices in Euro, and not get something like the British.

I would guess the ratio between a retail CD and an iTMS one would be much closer to one in Poland however, still Poland is the biggest of the former east and central European countries having joined the EU this year.

 

[~Shard~]

Still patiently waiting for iTMS Canada...

 

[atezun]

Still patiently waiting for iTMS Canada...

I wouldn't be suprised frankly, what with the fact that our fair use laws allow the free downloading of copyrighted songs currently.(Though, the CRIA is fighting tooth and nail to change that.)

 

[Ugg]

To give you an impression about the market share of Apple in certain areas in Switzerland: At a joined project of several Swiss universities, offering their students selected laptop modells (three IBM modells and all of Apple's offerings) at discounted prices, they sold 2538 IBM-laptops and 3698 Power- and i-Books.

I would guess the ratio between a retail CD and an iTMS one would be much closer to one in Poland however, still Poland is the biggest of the former east and central European countries having joined the EU this year.

Those numbers are mind-boggling! Why so much Apple support in Switzerland?

Pricing would be comparable, and I don't know what income levels are but I would think Estonia with its universal access to the Internet or the Czech Republic or perhaps even Hungary would be more advantageous markets. I'm betting though that Poland was easiest to work with unlike Canada or Oz.

 

[noxes]

I don't know what the problem in Canada is, We already have Napster, PureTracks, Bonfire (Futureshop), and Sony here. It can't be that big of a deal for Apple to get in here, unless they are trying to get french music for Québec. Does Napster Canada and PureTracks have a french section, I haven't looked?

-Damn You Pierre Trudeau for bilingulism

 

[~Shard~]

I don't know what the problem in Canada is, We already have Napster, PureTracks, Bonfire (Futureshop), and Sony here. It can't be that big of a deal for Apple to get in here, unless they are trying to get french music for Québec. Does Napster Canada and PureTracks have a french section, I haven't looked?

I've wondered this too - it's not like there aren't other online music services here, so one wouldn't think it should be that difficult for Apple to launch iTMS. But what do I know...

 

[Belly-laughs]

I'm pretty sure the polish people are adapting a lot faster to 'modern ways' of living than the danish people given that the danes (as the rest of western Europe) all ready lives in 'modern ways'

Modern ways of living are always changing. I couldn´t back this up, but I believe the Polish, or other Eastern citizens, after 15 years of dramatic change in every aspect of their society are more likely to continue to welcome change than the average Western citizen, pushing for new, more modern, ways of living.

 

[McFreggle]

Why does Belgium always comes last in Europe in regarding with APPLE.

Apple sales aren't exactly high here in Belgium, isn't it?

Besides... I still believe in a October-launch, also here in Belgium.
"Apple also today announced that it will launch a European Union version of the iTunes Music Store in October of this year."
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jun/15itunes.html

 

[dbasskin]

Damn You Pierre Trudeau for bilingulism

Who are you going to damn for not being able to spell "bilingualism", though?

 

[kashimo]

iTMS in Japan

NEWBIE HERE. I think the main reason Apple doesn't have iTMS in Japan is becasue of computers per capita and usage. Funny eh? High Tech Country...less than half of the population can use computers or owns one. Computer sales (especially macs) are on the raise but...still general usage is far below most of South East Asia, China, Korea and Taiwan. NOTE: (Many of my students (13~15) have never used the internet.) General usage has to go up before iTMS in Japan is even worth it.

 

[Mainyehc]

Why does Belgium always comes last in Europe in regarding with APPLE.

Hmmm... No, actually, I think that Portugal is definitely the country that ALWAYS comes last as far as Apple products/services are concerned. We're part of the EU since 1984 (yes, the same year the Macintosh was released) and Apple hasn't even an official presence here. There isn't such a thing as "Apple Portugal", there isn't a www.apple.com/pt domain (just a somewhat fake and always outdated www.apple.com.pt), there isn't a properly working portuguese Apple store... Which I can't fully understand!
On FNAC, for instance, Macs are sometimes displayed in a special spot, right in the middle of the store. Same goes for Corte Inglés, they have a very nice Mac section. Retailers (those who happen to sell macs ) aren't Mac-unfriendly at all, and consumers in general don't usually know much about macs, but they find them "cute", and definitely lust over them.
What I'm sick of is having to wait 3+ months for new Mac models to arrive here. I bought my "brand new" iMac G4 17'' 1,25 GHz the exact day it arrived in Lisbon (only TWO of them arrived, mine having a lovely dead pixel ), DECEMBER the 1st, 2003!!! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

 

[webmatthijs]

Gr8 another bunch of people who dont hav to suffer anymore.

itunes is fantastic, hope it comes to asia and australia too!

 

[hansen]

iTMS Europe in a week

One more week before October.

Any good updates on rumors regarding iTMS in the rest of Europe?

I can't wait!

I hope we are talking October 1st 00:01 and not "during october"

 

[jarrek]

As iTMS is going to be open in Poland (thank you UE!) and I'm probably one of few iPod and generaly mac owners to be enlightened upon this subject here in Poland. Why is that? The thing is that as everywhere in Europe Apple makes a huge effort to sell iPods whereas here they just posted a few posters and that's pretty much it, oh I forgot, there was also the Hey Mama! ad but hey, aren't there any more commercials Apple made, heck, I've seen a whole lot of the on their website. Poland is a very prospective country to invest in and the iPods do tend to be sold out with a 3 week shipping delay. This is mainly caused by the fact that the 4G and mini are way less expensive than they used to be. The only thing I wonder about is what is going to be the price/song. The avarage income is very low so it can't be too expesive since it won't get the desired popularity. But then again UE citizens such as Germans would be getting Poland based credit cards (it's not so hard) and buy cheap music, just as they do with new cars. I've been using allofmp3 to download higher quality mp3's but that's nothing comparing to the variety of music the iTMS has. Apple will have a monopoly on internet music stores here so it will make a great deal. Just can't wait, counting away days to the premiere.

 

[takao]

Why is that? The thing is that as everywhere in Europe Apple makes a huge effort to sell iPods whereas here they just posted a few posters and that's pretty much it, oh I forgot, there was also the Hey Mama! ad but hey, aren't there any more commercials Apple made, heck, I've seen a whole lot of the on their website.

i can assure you that ipod ads are very rare.. i personally have seen the first ipod ad (better: the last 2 seconds) ever, just 2 hours ago when switching through the tv channels on the french tv channel 'fashion tv' (most boring tv channel ever)
and outside of 'really big towns (paris,berlin etc. there are no ads. ... no ..there are none in vienna..)

 

[hansen]

i can assure you that ipod ads are very rare.. i personally have seen the first ipod ad (better: the last 2 seconds) ever, just 2 hours ago when switching through the tv channels on the french tv channel 'fashion tv' (most boring tv channel ever)
and outside of 'really big towns (paris,berlin etc. there are no ads. ... no ..there are none in vienna..)

I have't seen any adds here either.

 

[ipodrocker]

Come on Apple itms to ireland!

come on apple bring the music store to ireland and the rest of europe, crush msn music asap!!!

 

[g4cubed]

I hate complainers.

Personally, I think Apple is pulling a George W. Bush with the iTunes Music Store. Now Apple can boast about how many countries it's in, but who really cares about any of them? Next week we'll probably read about how iTMS is now available in Mongolia.

.narco

Aren't you complaining? It seems so to me.

Also, I think the people in those countries care.

And as for Apple being like Bush, Apple isn't trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes as our current prez.(this is NOT a policitical ad, just MHO) And as a lot of people stated it's the the Labels and licensing that is the big sticking points. Not location or population size.