I forgot to mention this when it was still news.  However, I should publicly admit that I was wrong about Apple’s intentions towards music DRM.  I thought that their DRM was designed an intentional anticompetitive move in order to foster lock-in for iPods, and that their anti-DRM grumblings were just posturing to make themselves look better to their flock of true believers.

However, this is apparently not the case since they have followed through with their words and enabled DRM-free music from the music label which approved of the move.  This means that a song bought from the iTMS can be played on any music player, making the iPod just one amongst several competitors in the digital music players market instead of a required piece of a proprietary iTMS solution.

Apple must realize that they make a quality product with the iPod and that people are willing to pay a premium for that product even without anticompetitive lock-in. Time will tell, but they may even sell more as they market a more worthwhile product on iTMS.  Regardless, kudos to Apple and I was wrong.