Virgin May Show Apple a Thing or Two

Alex Salkever thinks that Virgin’s cool factor may overwhelm Apple’s cool factor in the online music space…The honeymoon was nice while it lasted, says Alex.

Branson, chairman of the British conglomerate, is a master marketer. He has brought hip and fun to stodgy fields such as airlines (preflight massage, anyone?) and mobile-phone service (who else offers personalized daily predictions from cartoon character Sponge Bob Squarepants?).

Also, Virgin plans to add to its lineup a new personal music player that will more closely compete with Apple. That would give Virgin a “clicks and bricks” play that neither Apple nor any other online-music seller currently can match, according to Alex.

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