What should apple do?
With Zune now here it seems like a good time to look at Apple?s options for keeping control of the downloads/MP3 player market and what Microsoft hopes to do. I'd just be interested in seeing other ideas about the big picture. Not that Apple doesn't stream videos in HD or allow movie renting.
Beyond Microsoft Apple faces a few fundamental problems as I see it.
1. They do not allow other companies to use iTunes but other companies are using MS?s software. Almost a replay of what Apple did with the Mac OS vs. what MS did with Windows. However, with Zune here the few MP3 player companies left won?t survive long so MS won?t have many partners unless they get cell phone companies to use windows based DRM, etc.
2. They can?t afford to do anything to slow the sales of iPods since they make so much money off them, but now MS will be giving a record company a cut of their player sales and Apple may have to also. If they?d liscened iTunes they would have lost some iPod sales but perhaps made iTunes the default player, a good thing or not?
3. Apple and MS are already fighting the movement from stand-alone players to cell phone based players. How can Apple counter this movement? Again, Apple makes a ton of money with their iPods. They seem unwilling to give cell phone makers/companies a product equal to the iPod and making their own cell phone seems fraught with danger.
4. Apple isn?t well liked by the record labels, seemingly, but MS seems to be going to great lengths to become favored by the record labels. Will Apple have to start appeasing more?
What can Apple do? They must keep innovating and forming new partnerships when possible. They also have to decide what they want to be i.e. a hardware company or a software company. If cell phones will become the dominant player should Apple position iTunes as the cell phone software/DRM and content provider? Or should they try to make their own cell phones and keep it locked to iTunes?
Now it?s clear what MS wants to do. Control all digital content and be the only provider of digital content. I?m not sure if Zune can do that for them but it will make it a lot harder for Apple. By creating Zune player MS is trying to do the same thing they did with Xbox, but it might be too late and they risk making it a three way fight with Apple, cell phone companies and their own DRM software and MS with their DRM. Again, it seems like for portable content the cell phones are going to take more of the market so MS may need to team with a cell phone company and keep their software/DRM as the preferred software.
This fight will be about who offers the most and best content and who creates the most usable and most used software/DRM. Right now Apple does but can they keep control going in the same direction they have been? Now I?m sure they have a lot of tricks up their sleeves, i.e. the airlines deal, but it will be an interesting fight.
Beyond Microsoft Apple faces a few fundamental problems as I see it.
1. They do not allow other companies to use iTunes but other companies are using MS?s software. Almost a replay of what Apple did with the Mac OS vs. what MS did with Windows. However, with Zune here the few MP3 player companies left won?t survive long so MS won?t have many partners unless they get cell phone companies to use windows based DRM, etc.
2. They can?t afford to do anything to slow the sales of iPods since they make so much money off them, but now MS will be giving a record company a cut of their player sales and Apple may have to also. If they?d liscened iTunes they would have lost some iPod sales but perhaps made iTunes the default player, a good thing or not?
3. Apple and MS are already fighting the movement from stand-alone players to cell phone based players. How can Apple counter this movement? Again, Apple makes a ton of money with their iPods. They seem unwilling to give cell phone makers/companies a product equal to the iPod and making their own cell phone seems fraught with danger.
4. Apple isn?t well liked by the record labels, seemingly, but MS seems to be going to great lengths to become favored by the record labels. Will Apple have to start appeasing more?
What can Apple do? They must keep innovating and forming new partnerships when possible. They also have to decide what they want to be i.e. a hardware company or a software company. If cell phones will become the dominant player should Apple position iTunes as the cell phone software/DRM and content provider? Or should they try to make their own cell phones and keep it locked to iTunes?
Now it?s clear what MS wants to do. Control all digital content and be the only provider of digital content. I?m not sure if Zune can do that for them but it will make it a lot harder for Apple. By creating Zune player MS is trying to do the same thing they did with Xbox, but it might be too late and they risk making it a three way fight with Apple, cell phone companies and their own DRM software and MS with their DRM. Again, it seems like for portable content the cell phones are going to take more of the market so MS may need to team with a cell phone company and keep their software/DRM as the preferred software.
This fight will be about who offers the most and best content and who creates the most usable and most used software/DRM. Right now Apple does but can they keep control going in the same direction they have been? Now I?m sure they have a lot of tricks up their sleeves, i.e. the airlines deal, but it will be an interesting fight.
Comments
1. They do not allow other companies to use iTunes but other companies are using MS?s software.
Wrong, Zune does not support buying nor playing PlaysForSure songs, and Zune Marketplace does not allow PlaysForSure devices.
2. They can?t afford to do anything to slow the sales of iPods since they make so much money off them, but now MS will be giving a record company a cut of their player sales and Apple may have to also. If they?d liscened iTunes they would have lost some iPod sales but perhaps made iTunes the default player, a good thing or not?
License iTunes? To whom? Why?
3. Apple and MS are already fighting the movement from stand-alone players to cell phone based players. How can Apple counter this movement?
I believe it's been confirmed that they're working on their own cellphone.
4. Apple isn?t well liked by the record labels, seemingly, but MS seems to be going to great lengths to become favored by the record labels. Will Apple have to start appeasing more?
No, Apple needs to protect the consumers' interests, rather than sucking up to what the labels want. Apple wants to sell iPods, not ludicrous lies about "piracy".