Users of Hewlett-Packard PCs in Nigeria have called for the development of the digital music service launched on Monday across key European markets.
The rollout was done in collaboration with British digital music firm Omnifone Ltd.
The users said a similar design for the African market would gain acceptance on the continent where consumers’ appetite for new music download services was on the rise.
They said they could not wait to see a similar version in Nigeria for example, where HP computers have become part of many households.
A recent survey showed that at least three out of five Nigerians who use laptops preferred HP products.
They claimed that HP PCs were more user friendly and durable.
The Music Station service will be preloaded on 16 of HP’s personal computer models in Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The service has been developed and is managed by British digital music firm Omnifone. HP runs a similar service in United States with RealNetworks’ Rhapsody.
Such new subscription services helped to lift sales of digital music by up to 12 percent last year to US$4.2 billion, industry trade body IFPI said last week.
“As the world’s biggest PC vendor, HP has a huge opportunity to create a viable competitor to iTunes due to its scale”, said Rob Lewis, chief executive of Omnifone.
Apple’s iTunes – with a pay-per-download business model – is the leading digital music distributor. Across Europe, Middle East and the Africa region, HP sold around 20 million personal computers in 2009, slightly ahead of Acer.
by Chris Uba in Nigeria
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