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It's been a long time since we've had a fortnight like the one we had while putting this issue together. In that time, in the run-up to Steve Jobs' keynote address in San Francisco, every Mac developer of note seemed to be pre-announcing products for release in the next few weeks.

Probably the biggest news of all, though, apart from the imminent demise of HD-DVD was Apple's decision to standardise the price of all music downloads from the iTunes Store throughout Europe. It neatly coincided with the European Commission bringing its investigation into consumers' inability to download across borders to a rather flat conclusion. Coincidence? Erm... no.

On the face of it, this looks like a win-win situation for Apple. Lower prices should mean higher sales, and threatening to 'reconsider its continuing relationship' with any record company that

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doesn't drop its wholesale prices should help to maintain its healthy profits.

But Apple's relationship with the record industry is already starting to sour. For some time now we have seen them offer exclusives and special deals to competitors for no other reason than to loosen Apple's stranglehold on the means of distribution. If it refuses to bear some of the financial burden of these lower prices, and instead tries passing it on lock and stock to the producers, it could see its supply channels dry up altogether.

No more music, no more Store.

That leaves us Mac-using iPod owners in a curious position. We're locked out of most competing stores, and the iPod refuses to play WMA, the leading competitor to copy-protected iTunes tracks. Apple had better hope that its tough stance pays off. If not, it'll have little choice but to license WMA from Microsoft, which will be both a humiliating climb-down and a commercially risky proposition, as it would make the iPod compatible with just about every other music download store.

In the short term, though, little will change. It's going to take some months for the lower prices to kick in, and a lot can happen in that time. However, Apple can no longer take for granted the power of its brand or the beauty of its players. As more and more music companies ally themselves with competing stores, it's soon going to realise that choice will win out over design every time.