A former Apple engineering executive, Tim Bucher, felt that he was unfairly ousted from Apple in 2004 by Steve Jobs. In 2008, Mr. Bucher has joined Dell and has a plan to go after the primary weaknesses of iTunes and iPods, according to BusinessWeek late on Thursday.

Instead of going against Apple’s strengths, the iTunes Store and the iPod, Mr. Bucher’s 120 person team plans to create an alliance amongst Apple’s many rivals and create an infrastructure to readily purchase and easily move personal music around.

The plan involves both cashing in on the resentment the labels have against Apple for its stranglehold on the music business combined with technology from Mr. Bucher’s company, Zing, that he formed after leaving Apple.

The vision is to allow a customer to buy a song from one source, and "zing" it from device to device, for example, a mobile phone or car stereo system.

BusinessWeek’s Peter Burrows pointed out that Dell’s track record is "hardly encouraging," and the company hasn’t yet shown that it can develop the software necessary to deliver compelling services. TMO notes that herding multiple, technical big cats in the music industry will also pose major problems. In addition, Dell, eager as it is to compete against Apple in music, is visibly in the mood to entertain some very lofty visions.

Regarding that ouster from Apple, "I guarantee it’s not about revenge," Mr. Bucher said.