Quoting The New York Times article published on the December 4, "In the most recent sign that Apple is looking at alternative ways for people to store and play their digital music, the company has agreed to buy Lala, a four-year-old start-up based in Palo Alto, Calif., a person with knowledge of the deal said Friday." Immediately after an unnamed source in a Reuters report stated that Apple is ready to start streaming, "Apple recognizes that the model is going to evolve into a streaming one and this could probably propel iTunes to the next level," either were asleep during the last few years or are PC users. While I can't disagree that Apple recognized that the model is going to be about "streaming", I can only add that Apple recognized it many years ago and was setting up both software and hardware to accommodate the streaming, including the latest HTTP adaptive streaming on iPhone system 3 and Quicktime X, which is bundled with Snow Leopard OS.

In regards to Apple buying Lala, some say that, "if Apple is already testing a functional streaming service, there seems to be little need to buy an entire company to obtain similar technology. In fact, Lala uses Flash for wrapping its streams, and Apple has been notably averse to using that software for just about anything—it's certainly not displayed within iTunes as things currently stand." My interpretation is that Apple simply removed a competitor from the marketplace that got in its turf, even if it was with a sub-prime experience.