“It sounds like Rob Glaser is itching for an invite to Apple Computer’s digital music party. Glaser, chief executive of multimedia software giant RealNetworks, derided the way Apple’s top-selling iPod music player works only with Apple’s own top-selling iTunes Music Store — and doesn’t work with rival download stores like the RealPlayer Music Store. Glaser, whose Seattle company develops RealPlayer and owns the online music site Rhapsody, shared a panel at PC Forum in Scottsdale, Ariz., Tuesday with Shane Robison, Hewlett-Packard’s chief technology officer,” Jon Fortt reports for The Mercury News.
“HP plans to begin selling its own version of the iPod in a few weeks through a partnership with Apple, so Glaser asked Robison to work on getting Apple CEO Steve Jobs to open up the iPod to others in the industry, predicting that Cupertino-based Apple’s music player will lose market share otherwise,” Fortt reports.
“‘Consumers will say, ‘I bought an iPod and I can only shop in one store. What is this, the Soviet Union?” Glaser said. ‘Steve does understand this,’ Robison said. ‘It will evolve,'” Fortt reports.
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