Includes music, movies, iCloud services

Apple has announced that the iTunes Store is now available in 12 new regions in Asia. These include Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, as well as Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Local visitors can now buy music from iTunes -- including local and international artists -- and either rent or buy movies, including titles from major studios like Fox, Paramount, Sony, Disney, and Warner Brothers.

For music Apple is not only supporting iTunes in the Cloud in the new regions, but also iTunes Match, the company's backup and streaming subscription service. Match was initially limited to the US, but has gradually rolled out to more countries since late 2011.

Today's announcement includes more regions that were originally rumored, but Indonesia is conspicuously absent from the list. Also missing are TV shows, though the rights for TV can often be more complex than they are for movies. When Apple begins offering iTunes video in a given country, it always starts with movies, with TV following sometime later if at all.

by MacNN Staff