Apple: new strategy: licensing technology?
aol and apple teamed up to deliver iTunes-downloads for every AOL-customer. hp will bring rebranded iPods which apple will produce for them. and today aol brings its own aim client with compatibility to iChat AV conferencing. i saw another sidenote about a music store which is going to offer AAC-files somewhere...
the best deal will probably be the HP-branded-iPod.
what else a technology could apple license to others? i think this would be a great way for apple to earn some extra money and to make their own products more popular. i could be wrong but i think apple has changed its mind and will license new technology (other than macs) to every good positioned partner ...
the best deal will probably be the HP-branded-iPod.
what else a technology could apple license to others? i think this would be a great way for apple to earn some extra money and to make their own products more popular. i could be wrong but i think apple has changed its mind and will license new technology (other than macs) to every good positioned partner ...
Comments
Second, iPod is being rebranded, not licensed. Apple's still building them all.
However, you are on to something insofar as Steve knows that Apple can't be an island anymore. Apple is building on open source and building on standards so that the tech they are using - whether it's theirs or not - is shared with other companies. MPEG-4 is a great example of this. HP's rebranding of iPod was a brilliant coup that will get iPod far more exposure than Apple could secure. Then, of course, there's iTunes.
I definitely see them continuing to do this strategically. Their wholesale adoption of the MPEG family of standards, and their working with IETF to make Rendezvous an open standard, means that they can offer products that can work well with others, easily - the only obstacle would be licensing Apple's FairPlay DRM in some cases (iTunes).
This will all help the Mac, by increasing Apple's exposure and reputation for compatibility and interoperability as well as solidifying its reputation for interface design. But it will also free Apple from absolute dependence on the Mac for revenue, which is important since the Mac won't be budging for a while yet.
Heh. I'm posting in OW 5 beta, and this text field is doing really funky things, so we'll see how this post comes out...
Originally posted by a_greer
come on jobs, license osx to the wintel platform, the ultimate windows alternative
Hell.
No.
Originally posted by CubeDude
Hell.
No.
I second that.
Originally posted by a_greer
come on jobs, license osx to the wintel platform, the ultimate windows alternative
If you look at the sort of licensing/rebranding that Apple's doing, they're doing it in such a way that the final product is as purely Apple's as possible. HP gets iPod - and iTunes, and iTMS. Apple controls the experience from the servers to the playback device; the fact that there's a Windows box somewhere in the chain is marginalized as much as possible.
This level of control is not possible running OS X on PC hardware. The variety of hardware is in fact one reason why the Windows experience can be more aggravating than the Mac experience, so the real alternative involves jumping hardware and software platforms.
I understand why the idea of OS X on PC hardware is appealing, but there are too many problems. One of them is the wild variability and inconsistent quality of PC hardware.
Originally posted by a_greer
come on jobs, license osx to the wintel platform, the ultimate windows alternative
Why? OS X is all about the hardware.
Originally posted by Amorph
Well, first of all, AAC isn't Apple's tech. MPEG-LA is more than happy to license it to anyone interested, including Apple.
Nitpick: MPEG-2/-4 AAC licensing isn't handled by MPEG-LA...