Apple spokesperson, Steve Dowling, confirmed acquisition of the online music streaming and downloading website LaLa by the music major Apple on Sunday. LaLa brings Apple the ability to scan users’ hard drives, create a duplicate music library that owners can access from Web-enabled devices, and sell songs for a dime each. But the key reason for Apple to acquire LaLa, as told to CNET News, was to obtain company’s payment and fulfillment systems. However, it is still unclear whether Apple is planning to launch its own streaming-music, or cloud-storage, or not.
Only a few days back LaLa had finished working on a new product, an iPod application, which made it even more lucrative for Apple. This application allowed a user to load all the songs on his PC or Mac onto his phone whereby resolving the issue of skimpy memory of an iPhone.
LaLa told the New York Times that though the acquisition meant loss for its stakeholders, it considered the offer after realizing that profitability was unlikely for its current business.
With this acquisition, the only frontrunners in digital music space now are Pandora, Amazon, Spotify, MySpace Music, Last FM, and Zune’s Marketplace. However, till date none of them have generated enough market share to challenge iTunes.