Courtesy of OSWeekly.com 

(Column) - At this point in time, Apple seems unstoppable. Not only are they riding high off of the unbelievable success of the iPhone, but all other aspects of what they do appear to be surging, too. Consumers are rushing to purchase Macs, iPods, and media from iTunes, and there’s also a great amount of interest in the forthcoming release of Leopard. There’s no doubt that this is both a good time to be working at Apple and a good time to be an investor in the company, but when you step away from the situation for a moment, it’s truly eye-opening to see how fast it could all begin to fall apart.

Even though Apple makes some fantastic computers and software, you can’t forget about the fact that an extremely large portion of their revenue comes from their music business. Apple may have started out as a computer company, but with the introduction of the iPod and now the iTunes store, it’s obvious that music is just as much a part of what they do as anything else. Just think about how many people you know that have an iPod and/or use iTunes to purchase music. In fact, chances are that you’re involved with one or both of these things yourself.

Apple’s music service may be the most popular option around with a 70 percent market share, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the record labels are falling over themselves to become strongly associated with Apple. For example, the recent news suggests that Universal reportedly isn’t interested in renewing their long-term contract with Apple and would rather do everything on their own terms. While their music would more than likely remain on iTunes, they want to be able to offer exclusives to other companies and have more of a say in what happens with every aspect of their music.

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Apple may have serious leverage, but Universal is taking a stand in the sense that they want to have more power with dictating what price their content is set at and how it’s protected. Representatives from Apple are making public statements to the effect that these rumors aren’t true and everything is fine and dandy, but deep down, they have to be concerned about this. Is it a sign of things to come? Are more record labels going to gain some internal strength and try to stand up against the monopoly that Apple has developed in the online music business?

Either way, I have to say that it’s amusing to see Apple get beat up a little bit. They’re not invincible, and this just proves it. It’s not always fun to have the most market share, and Microsoft knows this from repeated firsthand experiences. One of the biggest problems for Apple with the idea of a record label being on shaky ground with them is that iTunes is so much a part of everything that they do that if a label withdraws their content, the value of their products could take a hit.

OS X, the iPod, the iPhone, and even the Apple TV all connect to iTunes, and if consumers can’t get what they want on iTunes, they could end up using other services and products. In other words, bye-bye, Apple. The hip company from Cupertino may appear to be overconfident about their accomplishments with digital music, but the truth is that their entire business is at the mercy of the record labels, at least to some extent.

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