Warners not trying to unseat Apple

That's what they said, anyway, during the revelation of their $23million profit from last year's trading:

"I have a lot of heart for the access models that are being developed in the mobile space - increasingly, there will be competition for Apple. Having said that, Apple continues to grow its business with us. This notion that somehow we need to dethrone Apple is not a notion we need to spend a lot of time on - so long as they continue to allow us to make the progress we have ... they allow us to innovate ... It's already served as a pretty good model for the industry and will continue to do so."

This sudden relaxed attitude towards Apple may well have less to do with Warner's excitement at the prospect of mobile music, and more to do with Apple's belated embrace of variable pricing. Oh, and the increasing obvious failure of Microsoft to offer any sort of viable competition.