Apple continues to feel the pinch in digital music, with competitors closing in on all sides - and this week has seen multiple examples of the heat slowly turning up on the iPod manufacturer.
The stakes are high: Apple holds 70 per cent of the US MP3 player market with its iPod range. We believe Cupertino plans to upgrade its digital music players within weeks.
One band that may not appear at the new iPod launch this time around may be U2. The only band to have had an official iPod model made in its honour has now dropped the DRM from its music catalogue - but only through Real's Rhapsody service - a snub to iTunes.
One high-profile competitor already appears in two minds at taking on Apple in this market, Dell, which this week moved to diminish reports claiming it plans the release of its
