Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) 
announced Monday that visitors have purchased and downloaded more than 100 million songs from the company's iTunes Music Store since its inception back in April 2003. Apple called this is major milestone not just for the company, but also for the entire music business.
In a statement, company CEO Steve Jobs thanked customers, artists, and the music labels that have participated in the making the iTunes Music Store what it is today.
"iTunes quickly outpaced the competition and is far and away the world's number one online music service," Jobs said.
Doing Somersaults for Winner
The 100-millionth song, "Somersault (Dangermouse remix)" by Zero7 was purchased by 20 year-old Kevin Britten, a Kansas resident.
As the grand prizewinner of Apple's 100-million song countdown, Britten will receive a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod and a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs. He will also have the opportunity to create his own celebrity playlist that will be published on the iTunes site.
The iTunes store has been experiencing tremendous growth since its launch last year, and had an early jumpstart when it announced that it had sold over one million songs in its first week.
In June, Apple launched a European version of the store in the UK, France and Germany. More than 800,000 songs were sold in those countries during the service's initial week.
In an interview with MacNewsWorld, iTunes director of product marketing, Chris Bell, said that the company expects the store's popularity will continue, both in the US and abroad. "In the future, we'll see iTunes go to a whole new level," he said.
Competition From Microsoft Ahead
Apple's announcement comes just before the expected launch of Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Portable Media Centers, which should be on sale in time for the holidays. Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) is already taking pre-orders.
The mobile-based Centers are handheld entertainment devices that make it easy to store and play recorded TV, movies, home videos, music, and photos, the company said.
Creative Labs, iRiver and Samsung are among the companies readying the first generation of Portable Media Centers, all of which will work with any version of Windows XP. Microsoft has noted that they will have 20GB hard drives, and that they differ from MP3 players, because they enable users to transfer many different types of content, in addition to music.
Analysts are split on whether this will impact the Apple's dominance. Some have called the Centers "iPod killers," while others doubt that Apple will be hobbled by Microsoft's efforts to capture the market.
Apple's Future Strategy
Even as Apple triumphs with its latest iTunes milestone, the company still faces many challenges in the future, said Bell. He noted that digital music is a very hot area right now, and Apple expects that more companies will be entering the market to capitalize on such broad consumer interest.
Where Apple will continue to put focus, according to Bell, is in bringing together iTunes and the iPod. So far, other companies have not been successful in merging services with players, giving Apple first-mover advantage.
"We've got a different offering that other competitors can't match," said Bell. "Only the strong survive in this arena, and we're very strong."
Beyond competition, Apple will also have to maintain an edge when it comes to making deals with other companies and keeping its song roster fresh. The company has already announced several agreements this year, including strategic deals with AOL and HP (NYSE: HPQ) .
Rick Grienzewic, director of digital audio for Gateway, told MacNewsWorld that in the industry, Apple is generally regarded as the leader, and is sparking a host of imitators.
"Apple has legitimized digital music with the use of iTunes," he said. "They've done a lot of great things that have opened the door for other companies to come in."
Talkback: 
