The long wait is over. People in Canada can now use Apple's iTunes service to download songs at a flat rate of 99 cents a song. Users can now choose from over 700,000 songs according to an Apple spokesman.

'The demand across Canada for the iTunes Music Store has been overwhelming,' said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice-president of applications. 'We've had a lot of e-mail requests and calls looking for the ITunes store.'

The original launch date for iTunes in Canada was supposed to be November but that was not met. At least Apple managed to save half of the holiday shopping season for those wishing to buy iPods or to burn CDs legally.

There is competition in Canada with sites such as Puretracks.ca and Archambault.ca but Apple officials remain confident. In reaction to the iTunes launch, Puretracks.ca reduced its price to as low as 79 cents for some songs.

Canada is now the 14th nation to make iTunes available. It has had great success so far in every market it has entered. In fact, the sale of iPods and the success of iTunes actually helped fuel the sales of Apple's macintosh computers and drive up Apple stock and profit projections.