could that be a sign that we will see ITMS in more asian countries soon? ;p
Anything is possible but I find it highly unlikely that Apple will go anywhere that the piracy is extremely high. They face enough resistance from recording companies and governments where things are good.
I don't mean to be indelicate so forgive me, but the few Singaporeans I know don't know many people who buy music and the many more Malaysians I know almost don't know anyone who buys music. Some of my friends in Japan, in their university days, used to be part of music rental businesses and would create a copy of new music when they rented it. This is now forbidden, but does it stop anyone? I recall an instance in a medium range audio shop where some salesperson was telling me that any time any of them got a new CD, they'd take it to work and use the CD Recorder to make copies for anyone on staff who wanted it. That made me think that the U.S.A. was the worst but according to the numbers, it's not. I only buy CDs because the download-able variety lacks quality and is expensive.
I just can't see that Apple would make a business decision that could leave them losing a lot of money by opening stores where people don't buy a lot of music. Are there enough iPods there that people will suddenly start to buy music or do most people use their hand phones?