AOL shook hands with Napster, challenging Apple

AOL and Napster officially go together in the online music market with a strategic cooperation contract. Accordingly, Napster will take the place of AOL Music Now and become AOL's exclusive online music service.

Experts say this is AOL's next step in its strategy of asserting its name in the online music industry.

Recently at the CES International Consumer Electronics Fair, AOL also announced to shake hands with China's top device maker Haier to produce a brand new line of wireless mobile digital music players. .

This means that the AOL-Napster alliance is determined to challenge Apple iPod-iTunes even though iTunes currently accounts for 80% of the US online digital music market.

The strength that the AOL-Napster alliance has in this competition is the device's wireless connectivity and multi-device compatibility of Napster's digital music format standard. Meanwhile, digital music on Apple's iTunes is only compatible with the iPod.

Analysts say that Apple seems to be very hard to beat with the launch of the iPhone - a mobile phone product that incorporates Apple's new digital music player.

Hoang Dung