Global by Design

2006 is a few days away and I can’t resist looking into my crystal ball to see what the year holds for all of us in the Web globalization industry.
But before reading my take on the year ahead, let’s see how I did on my 2005 predictions:
2005 Predictions Scorecard
Web Globalization Goes Mainstream - Correct
While Web [...]

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The Apple iTunes Australia store is now live. That brings Apple to a total of 21 iTunes stores.

Anyone care to guess how long before a New Zealand iTunes store launches?

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I just upgraded from iTunes 4 to iTunes 5 and, wouldn’t you know it, Apple changed the global navigation system. Instead of placing the link to the “global gaeway” in the upper left corner of the music store, the link has been demoted to the very bottom of the page, as shown here:
iTunes 4 (Germany)

iTunes [...]

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Apple’s globalization of iTunes appears to be moving right along. According to the press release:
“iTunes Music Stores were launched in the UK, France and Germany in June 2004, and now operate in 17 European countries including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The European iTunes [...]

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According to Engadget, the iTunes Music Store will indeed open in 2005 in Japan. That would make it a total of 20 iTunes country stores, with still plenty of room left to grow.

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While I’ve been waiting for the iTunes Australia site to launch (it was held up recently) I realize that I missed the launch of Denmark, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden. There are now a total of 19 iTunes country Web sites:

In December there were 14:

And in September of last year there were just four; that’s right, [...]

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The much-anticipated launch of iTunes Australia is on hold due to, who else, a record company. Or, more specifically, a record company’s lawyers.
According to the Courier-Mail:
A source said yesterday Apple had planned to launch an Australian version of its popular online music store last Thursday, as widely touted, but the launch was thwarted by [...]

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It looks like the much-awaited Australian site will be live by the end of April.
And unlike the UK, this time Apple owns the Australian domain name: itunes.com.au.
I even checked just to be sure:

What makes the Australian site significant is that this is the first Asia-Pacific site. I also expect to see Japan this year and [...]

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As predicted, the person who lost control over his itunes.co.uk domain to the folks at Apple, is appealing the decision.
This is where itunes.co.uk takes you now…

According to this article, the owner of QuidPro is appealing to the High Court. And I think he has a shot at keeping the name; after all, he did register [...]

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First, the bad news…
According to the WSJ the EU is investigating whether iTunes overcharges UK customers. The price of a song in the UK is about 20% more than it is on the continent. And because iTunes does not allow cross-border transactions (CBT), this has become something of or sore spot.
Personally, I’d love to see [...]

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