According to Tim Cook, Apple’s head of operations, Apple now has 80 percent of the market for downloaded music, with iTunes, and 70 percent of the market for MP3 players with the iPod. This is tantamount to a monopoly position – no it’s not, it is a monopoly position – but it’s not a stable one.

If Apple is to shore up its market dominance it needs to make a strong entry into the mobile phone market. There seems to be a consensus of opinion that music downloads will go mobile and they certainly will if the iPod turns into an iPhone. Apple’s collaboration with Motorola to produce an iPhone has yet to bear fruit, but rumour has it that a device of some kind will appear later this year. Rumour also has it that Apple may set up its own mobile network, by piggybacking on another carrier in the US, such as Cingular and, possibly, partnering with Virgin.

If these developments are in the works, it doesn’t surprise me. They make perfect sense and Apple needs to move as quickly as it can.