Napster Inc. on Wednesday unveiled a portable version of its music subscription service, backed by a $30 million ad campaign that takes aim at rival Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iPod player, reports Reuters.
Napster's promotion includes a Super Bowl television spot urging fans to compare the costs of spending $10,000 to buy and transfer 10,000 songs from Apple's iTunes store to an iPod, with the $15-per-month fee to carry songs from a catalog of over a million tracks on Napster-compatible players.
Some analysts were surprised by the $30 million that
Napster plans to spend on its promotion, which represented about 70 percent of what many had expected it to spend on a full year of marketing.
But Apple's flashy and expensive campaigns in support of its iPod have raised the bar for competitors, they said. "Apple has spent roughly a hundred million dollars or possibly twice that much to market iTunes and iPods. Now, Napster is stepping up to the plate," said analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.
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