The cartel was among LCD manufacturers. Chi Mei is the sixth company to plead guilty; the other five were LG, Sharp, Chunghwa, Seiko Epson, and Hitachi.

If you're a manufacturer who sends out a bid for LCD panels, and they all come back at something close to $X, you pay up. You need the parts, they have them, you pay what they're asking.

Whatever format Apple releases will instantly become the de facto standard, quite frankly. And chances are, it will be Apple Lossless, since existing iPods can already decode it.