Apple's reign "will collapse in less than a year"

THE MAKER of entertainment gear, Apple had better enjoy its reign of the online music biz while it lasts.

Hacks at the music bible Billboard have been sacrificing a few goats and invoked a God or Goddess of prophecy and are convinced that Apple's eyePod and iTunes will start to dwindle into bit players within 12 to 18 months.

The main problem for Apple is that it can't support the amount of interest that the online music business will generate, the magazine reckons.

The only reason that Apple has the 80 per cent of the market figure that it has is that its rivals cannot match the Cappuccino based outfit's hardware and software integration.

However Creative, Microsoft, Sony and Samsung are set to match that fairly soon, Billboard predicts.

The magazine said that in the meantime the music industry is having to lean on Apple to do something about its pricing. Apparently the Jobs Mob is behaving a bit too much like a monopoly now that it has the chance.

'It's a monologue with them,' one label executive told the magazine. 'They pretty much say, "This is what we want to do," and if you disagree with them you're an idiot. It's like dealing with a cult.'

More at the Washington Post ici la.