Los Angeles, May 01: Apple Inc is shutting down its newly bought Lala online music service amid speculation it is creating a way for iTunes customers to listen to songs stored on distant computers.
The move comes just weeks before an annual conference for developers in San Francisco on June 7 at which the secretive company tends to announce big news. Last year, it used the conference to unveil the latest version of its popular iPhone, the 3GS.
With Apple continuing to build a $1bn data centre in Maiden, North Carolina, that rivals the largest such facilities in the world, some executives in the online music industry believe that Apple is poised to announce an Internet-powered version of iTunes that would do away with the need to download songs.
Such a move would pit Apple, the largest online music retailer, against smaller companies that offer ways to deliver music to mobile devices using “cloud computing”, a remote-storage system that potentially challenges iTunes and its reliance on downloads and personal storage space.
“Whatever they bought Lala for, it is likely to be integrated into iTunes,” said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at technology consulting firm Altimeter Group. “It’s no surprise they’re shutting this down.”
But one factor against a big announcement soon is that Apple has not approached music executives about its plans since a few months ago, and new licenses that would be required have not been set up, according to two people at different major recording companies with knowledge of the discussions. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are meant to be confidential.
—Agencies