Today was a big day for Apple. Undoubtedly, the launching of the first iTunes compatible phone, in a partnership with Motorola and Cingular, represents a turning point in the history of digital music download.

Just as the new iPod models, the iPod nano, confirms that despite the critics, Apple hasn't lost the inspiration and that iPod still has a lot of say in the music domain.

Has Apple won the war? The debut of the Motorola ROKR E1 phone is only the beginning of a war Apple will have to fight this time not only against its traditional enemies, the MP3 Player producers, but also against the cell phone ones.

Let's not forget that the Nokia N91, the first 4GB hard disc, hasn't been released on the market yet and that Nokia didn't deny that the device will be iTunes compatible. If not iTunes, then who and what? Microsoft and Orange are also launching a model able to play WMA files, and actually the Microsoft-Samsung-Creative-Philips alliance will also produce one or more MP3 players by the end of the year.

Although the Motorola-Apple-Cingular alliance represents a strong incentive for the newly-born Motorola ROKR E1, there are many cell phone operators who want their own digital music service.

Apple today owns 80% of the digital music market, but powerful rivals, like Yahoo with its Yahoo Music Unlimited, have joined the battle, and it seems that Amazon is also planning to launch a similar service.