I kind of get the feeling that that's coming. I have no proof, of course, but I just have the feeling that Apple isn't satisfied with the current setup, either.
Indeed, we saw the Mac App Store launch as a separate application instead of being jammed into iTunes.
It's a lot easier to make new things separate than to break up all the existing stuff. I imagine the iTunes break-up will come, I just hope it doesn't take too long to get there.
I can't see that happening. The problem is iTunes is Apple's Trojan horse to get on Windows. They were able to separate the Mac App Store because by nature they don't need it on Windows. But almost everything else iTunes does (music, TV, movies, device management, apps, etc) needs to be cross platform to work out economically. If they were to break it up, they would have to fight to make each program popular on Windows.
iTunes will probably have to remain a monolith until iDevices can be self sufficient machines, which I don't see coming in the near future. Of course, there is no reason why they can't make it a better monolith in the mean time.
Honestly, if iTunes is Apple's Trojan horse, they really need to improve it. It is, without exaggeration, one of the worst programs I've used. I've heard it's much better on Mac, but the experience of having used it daily for years really put me off of Apple in general.
Mac App Store is not even related with portable devices synchronization or media playing and purchasing, areas that's traditionally iTunes covers, why would Apple even consider including it as a feature of iTunes?
Indeed, we saw the Mac App Store launch as a separate application instead of being jammed into iTunes.
It's a lot easier to make new things separate than to break up all the existing stuff. I imagine the iTunes break-up will come, I just hope it doesn't take too long to get there.