Microsoft would "welcome" an iTunes app from Apple for Windows 8, according to CEO Steve Ballmer. During a conference call with analysts, Ballmer hinted that companies such as Apple and Amazon, while competitors, also represent companies that deliver a lot of media content to device users, and that is attractive to Microsoft and their new touch-centric operating system.

Ballmer admitted that Amazon would have a "device competitor" with their rumored new tablet, but also noted that Amazon has "certainly behaved like their fundamental business is the service."

The competition between Apple and Microsoft is long and storied, and the battle lines are clear: Windows 8 will be compared to OS X Lion, and any tablet that Microsoft brings to market will have to get in the ring against the iPad. Ballmer, however, attempted to draw a distinction between the massive iTunes marketplace that serves content to mobile devices and that hardware that Apple manufacturers. Having a tablet built for Windows 8 but able to tap into iTunes for downloading media would be an interesting gambit, and not one that Ballmer is certain Cupertino willing to pursue.

"We’d welcome Metro style applications from Apple in the iTunes case," Ballmer said. "I don’t know what we’d see there but we’d certainly welcome those."

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Via SlashGear

Adrian covers daily news as well as the weekly Law & Apple column for MacLife.com. You can follow him on Twitter, if you want to.