HP Turns Away from iTunes, Embraces Rhapsody - Softpedia

HP Turns Away from iTunes, Embraces Rhapsody - Softpedia: "Two years ago, at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard at the time, Carly Fiorina, was talking about the plans to distribute a HP version of the iPod. In the end, the products did not sell as well as expected, often falling far behind the Apple-branded versions.

Now, after years of distributing Apple's iTunes with its new PCs, HP is turning towards RealNetworks and their Rhapsody music service.

'The computer maker's decision to drop Apple has been widely expected, after the company said last summer that it would stop distributing an HP-branded version of the iPod,' John Borland reports for CNET.

After seeing its products always lagging behind Apple's, HP is headed in a new direction. Rhapsody will now be bundled with the new HP PCs and laptops starting this spring. Customers will also be given a free 30-day trial subscription to the new default music subscription service from RealNetworks."