If someone can not create a itunes alternative then its a monopoly. I still think Sony should buy them out! that would be hilarious to the Religion of Mac! LOL
There are *many* iTMS alternatives. None of them have succeeded in the market, for various reasons - most of which involve draconian DRM, incomprehensible user interfaces, or just consumer-hostile practices.
There are a number of software alternatives to iTunes for loading music on your iPod. Those haven't gone anywhere either, and they're *free*!!!
And before you spout off about "proprietary format", the iPod is still capable of playing standard MP3s. You don't have to have AAC or buy your music from iTMS to load it on your iPod. Hell, you don't have to have ANY of the Apple software installed to load MP3's on your iPod if you don't want.
It's not a monopoly, especially when you contrast it to, oh, Sony's ATRAC format? It's only within the last year that Sony's digital music players have been able to play *some* MP3s, the rest of the time, you had to use ATRAC. And most of them you *had* to load the Sony software on your computer to put music on the device. If you tried to create an alternative software, Sony would (and did!) sue you as ATRAC was patented.