Apple Scores iTunes Bundling Deal For Chinese Market

by , 9:00 AM EDT, May 18th, 2004

Apple announced today a new bundling agreement for iTunes in the Chinese market. The company inked a deal with Chinese PC vendor Founder that will place iTunes on every PC that Founder sells in China. The deal doesn't specifically include the iTunes Music Store, as that service has yet to be launched outside the US.

"Digital music is becoming very important in the Chinese PC market, and Apple's iTunes is the runaway market leader," said Wei Xin, chairman of Founder Group and Founder Technology today in a press release issued by Apple. "As the first Chinese company to bundle this innovative software with our PCs, we are excited to provide our customers with the world's best digital music experience."

The Chinese market is one of the fastest growing PC markets in the world, with most of those sales going to Windows and Linux-based systems. Apple's penetration of that market for the Mac remains low.

You can find more information about Founder at that company's Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This is a pretty big deal for Apple, at least as far as the music business is concerned. In addition to spreading its name, as well as QuickTime and AAC, Apple is sowing the fields for if and when it brings the iTunes Music Store to China. This way Apple gets a head start by having potentially millions of copies of iTunes already in the market when and if that does happen.

With China largely being an untapped market for Apple, any progress can be considered good. We'd have been happier with a newly announced deal involving China and the Macintosh, but the music industry itself is obviously important to Apple's future, too.

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