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'The average number of songs sold for the iPod is 25, and there are many more songs on iPods than 25,' Rob Glaser told The Guardian. 'About half the music on iPods is music obtained illegitimately either from an illegal peer-to-peer networks or from ripping friends' CDs, which is illegal.'

Moot claims of illegality aside, Glaser blames the music industry 'for allowing Apple to create devices that are not interoperable'.

Which begs the question:

Perhaps unintentionally, Glaser hit on the real reason iPod owners prefer to rip friends CDs.

'It's the only way to get non-copy protected, portable, interoperable music,' he said.

He also acknowledged that the inability of device makers to come up with a competitor to the iPod makes it difficult, if not impossible for digital music services to compete with Apple. However he expects the situation to change.

'We assume that this failure of other companies besides Apple to create really compelling portable devices is not a long-term phenomenon,' he said.

Real, he said, will not launch its Rhapsody service in Europe until there is a 'slam dunk solution in the portable context'.

Glaser is by no means the first executive from an Apple competitor to accuse iPod owners of theft. Last year Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer declared that the most commom format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'.