RealNetworks Wants to Partner With Apple

As competition in the online music market stiffens, RealNetworks Inc. has so far failed in a bid to partner with its Internet music rival Apple Computer Inc. and join forces against their common enemy, Microsoft Corp.

RealNetworks Chief Executive Rob Glaser sent an e-mail to Apple Chairman Steve Jobs seeking an alliance and a meeting to discuss it this week while Seattle-based Glaser was in Silicon Valley.

Apple executives declined to comment.

Real, Apple and Microsoft all are jockeying for position in digital media, in which encoding formats and copy-protection technologies dictate how and on which devices consumers play their music.