UPDATED 09:26 EDT / JUNE 06 2011

Apple Faces Antitrust Complaint in Germany

While Apple’s much-awaited WWDC 2011 event is going to start soon, the technology giant  is facing an antitrust complaint in Germany by a music-streaming startup, which has filed a letter of complaint with the Bundeskartellamt, the country’s antitrust authority, claiming that Apple is abusing its market position by delaying the approval of the company’s iPad app. According to Simfy, the music streaming company, it has submitted its app over three months ago, claiming that Apple has delayed approval of the iPad app “in favor of its own strategy.”

Simfy already has an established presence in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and owns an iPhone/iPod app too.  Just like Spotify, it offers an on-demand stream of music either as a free, ad-based service; or a monthly-paid, ad-free service. According to Simfy’s CEO, Apple is planning something similar, which it would ideally like to launch without extra competition.

Ciaran O’Leary, or VC firm Earlybird which invested in Simfy in 2009 said,

“We know (from an Apple App Store manager) that the app approval has escalated to the highest level within Apple (senior management approval council or similar) several weeks ago – still no response, not answering to letters from lawyers, etc – so it’s blatantly obvious they are misusing their power.”

On the other hand, if we take a closer look at the scenario, this complaint was lodged even before Apple’s own music streaming was announced. Apple’s iCloud, the upcoming cloud-storage service for iOS, has been all the rage of speculation and interest leading up to WWDC, and luckily, we are going to see it launched today. So far, it’s been revealed that the technology magnificence and strategy of iCloud has been adopted by the four major record labels: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI Group.

This iCloud will be launched today at Apple’s annual 2011 World Wide Developers Conference. This mysterious offering by Apple will be kicked off by Steve Jobs himself. Additionally, the conference will also see other launches, like new versions of its desktop and mobile software that integrate its own online services — and possibly services from other companies, such as Twitter  — more tightly with the iPods, iPads, and iPhones that have become the core of the Mac maker’s business.

With its latest gamut of services, Apple is expected to once again change the entire way we use personal computers and mobile devices.  All we can do is wait and see what’s Apple has brought for us this time!


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