Apple missed its own deadline by a day or two, but nonetheless Canadians yesterday will awake today to find their local iTunes Music Store up and running.

Originally scheduled for a late November launch, ITMS Canada's absence yesterday prompted Apple to admit it had missed its slot.

"We said that we would launch the iTunes Music Store in Canada by the end of November, but we're going to miss this deadline by a bit," the company said in the statement sent to MacCentral.

"You'll hear from us very soon."

Indeed, the store went live last night. Songs are priced at CAD0.99 ($0.84) album-length batches are sold for CAD9.99 ($8.44) and up.

Apple most recently opened an English-language store for a number of European nations, following its successful launch of individual online shops for the UK, France and Germany in June. ITMS US launched in April 2003. As of 15 October, ITMS worldwide had shipped 150m songs since the US store's launch.

The next store, due to be opened sometime in 2005, is believed to be ITMS Japan. An Irish store is also thought to be in preparation. ®

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