A new competitor seems to raise in the online music market and this is SAMSUNG. This area has been dominated by Apple with iTunes.

Samsung Electronics made the announcement that it will hit the online music business, which has been dominated by Apple for a long time.

The company is preparing a service similar to Apple’s and collaborates with partners from U.S. and abroad. Choi Ji-Sung, the head of the company’s digital media division, made public the company’s intentions on Friday.

Apple is also the leader of the MP3 player market with its iPod. Samsung’s executive claims that its company’s MP3 players are better than iPods and with the help of the new music service it will be able to make its way through the competition very fast. After the new services will be launched, Samsung’s MP3 players will compete 1:1 with Apple’s iPods.

Some analysts talk about a union of the Apple’s rivals to outstrip the leader. If Samsung finds such allies, Apple may have serious problems in the future.

Samsung was founded in 1969 by Sam-eul Sung, and one of its subsidiaries, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is one of the largest electronics companies in the world. Founded in Daegu, South Korea, it operates in around 58 countries and has over 208,000 workers. The turnover in 2003 was about 101.7 billion USD. Samsung is recognized as being one of the top 10 brands in the world.

At present, Samsung Electronics operates in 5 business areas, namely Telecommunications (Mobile Handsets and Network), Digital and Home Appliances (including washing machines, microwave ovens, refrigerators, VHS and DVD players, etc), Digital Media, LCD, and Semiconductors.