Apple Is Unlikely to Offer Unlimited Music, But If It Did...

Don’t expect a subscription music service bundled with iPods anytime soon: that’s the consensus emerging from the news flurry since last week’s report Apple was considering such a move. Still, the flurry made two things clear, declares Nate Anderson in Ars Technica: Apple would need to tread carefully to avoid antitrust complications if it did go there, and consumers finally seem ready to “rent” music.

If that music is from Apple and if it includes anytime, anywhere access, that is—making the iPhone the ideal subscription platform. “This is the sort of value proposition that competitors haven't been able to match: the biggest music store combined with the hottest device combined with all the music you want combined with anywhere access,” writes Anderson. (More Apple stories.)