COMPUTER giants Apple and Microsoft face becoming the first companies to be forced to appear before a federal parliamentary inquiry with MPs pushing to subpoena the technology behemoths next week.

Hearings into the pricing of software and other IT-related material such as games and music downloads will resume later this week and committee members say they are fed up with being ignored by one of the key players.

"I'm firmly of the view that the only way to get answers from some of the major IT vendors is to compel them to appear before the inquiry" ... Ed Husic.

''I'm firmly of the view that the only way to get answers from some of major IT vendors is to compel them to appear before the inquiry,'' the Sydney Labor MP and committee member Ed Husic told The Sun-Herald.

''We've been sending countless letters trying to get them to either appear or substantiate their statements and we've got little to show for that effort.