Although Apple is already under investigation within the European Union for a number of different issues, I don't think things are moving fast enough in this area.

iTunes is forced upon iPod and iPhone users, often this takes place without the user knowing at the time of purchase they need to install this other program. I suppose what bugs me the most is how poorly written iTunes is, it has got a wide reputation for being one of the worst media players on Windows, probably not as bad as Real Player, but nevertheless something most people, if they had the choice would rather not install.

It's not just a question of bundling iTunes either, iTunes is itself bundled with QuickTime (also known for its poor quality), which gets installed as well. This creates a bad user experience, they install one thing and get something else installed too, and it isn't like the thing runs only when you decide to run it, it is always running on your system, unless you have the knowledge to go and stop it.

The EU needs to act on the iPod issue, as it has the majority share of the market, I'd like to see the iPhone addressed too, but I'm not expecting that to be successful in Europe (people here expect their phone to be able to record video and send picture messages) so I don't think that should be the priority at the moment.

People were quick enough to get Microsoft in court over just an issue of bundling, with Windows you were never forced to use the applications that were also included, you could always install and use your own. That isn't the case with the iPod and iPhone, you not only have to install iTunes, you have to use it to connect with the iPod and iPhones.

Therefore I'd like to see the EU require Apple to unbundle iTunes from iPod (and iPhone), and allow the devices to be controlled by other applications such as Winamp and Windows Media Player.

I'd also like to see the EU either force Apple to remove all Digital Rights Management from songs purchased on iTunes, or require Apple to do this on request. Apple using DRM in this fashion can only be described as locking people into Apple and not letting them leave unless they want to abandon their music collection.

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This is a good video (originally posted by Valleywag, hat tip to Long too) showing how Apple deals with these sort of issues with the press, when the journalist mentioned the word monopoly the Apple PR machine spun up a notch, clearly this is something they're concerned about, and they have good reason to be.