According to inside sources, Apple may be looking to unveil a new cloud based music service. While negotiations are apparently ongoing with the four major record labels, there still could be an announcement about a data hub.
“The company has indicated that the data center is on track to be completed by the end of CY10 and it will begin using it then,” wrote Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. “We believe an announcement at the September event is likely, but the service may not begin until late in CY10. With Apple’s growing family of connected devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV and Macs) it only makes sense that Apple would deliver a cloud-based media service to leverage its competitive advantage in the space.”
Some think that the focus of the September 1 event will merely be the unveiling of the new iPod Nano and perhaps some Apple TV announcements. “It’ll be about the iPod,” said Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall. “Apple TV, that’s still chugging along. They will likely introduce [an Apple TV] in a sleeker case with more storage, but that’s not going to be a big deal.”
Still, announcing the service was in the works could get consumers happy and deflate recent streaming music services like MOG and Rdio. Apple likes to announce products and services and immediately make them available, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Source: Ad Week {link no longer active}
