Microsoft's new offensive in the digital music industry will seek to significantly alter the competitive landscape in a new market that until now has largely been dominated by Apple Computer and its powerful combination of the iPod portable music player and the iTunes Music Store. Among the many companies announcing PCs running the new Windows XP Media Center operating system to be unveiled today, Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ) will stand out by offering an option of its version of the software that bridges at least part of the gap between Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) online music service and others like Microsoft's. HP recently began selling its own version of Apple's iPod.
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