The music industry is placing its collective balls in Google's hand -- wait till Google starts squezing, then they'll want to run back to Apple. Might be too late by then.
doesn't amazon mp3 app come installed on most android phones? i'm surprised amazon has only a 12 percent penetration. thought it would be much bigger considering their web presence. i like amazon mp3 better than itunes store. their prices are lower and make for a much better online shopping experience. i think google would have been better served collaborating with amazon to market mp3's. if google markets mp3's the way they did nexus one, well...
Once again, "Do No Evil" Google enters a market to hand back control to the entrenched powers as opposed to the customers. Like they did with Verizon. And like they will with Sony and the likes now.
Ovi with Nokia the largest handset maker on earth.
Google a new contender.
I wonder how companies like Samsung who have set up their own music store for their MP3 players, Android phones and have just released their first Android iPad and Motorola who also have a music store for their Android phones will feel about competition from Google.
I don't think Apple should be too concerned, a lot of people still don't know who Google (the company) is apart from looking for stuff on the Internet.
Every day I see blank looks as I try to explain what Android is and that it's made by Google, alien concepts ticking over in non-techheads minds.
No - pretentious, wanna-be Apple killers pounding their chest and proclaiming their vaporware to be superior to Apple's shipping products. (Not to mention the Greek chorus online clownboys following in their wake, predicting Apple's imminent demise.)
Competition? Yeah, sure, Apple only has a ten-year lead. They only put Tower Records and their ilk out of business, that's all. They're only the biggest seller of music on the planet today. Sure. They're terrified of competition.
the greek chorus which happens to be a (self proclaimed) geek chorus.
very soon Im flushing my Gmail account for Mobile me
just cant handle Google anymore they are becoming MS more and more every day
I've already done it and ain't looked back. Mobileme is actually pretty awesome. I didn't realize how so until I'd used it for a month or two. Apple should lower their price to like 19.95 single and 29.95 family and they'd have tons of new sign ups. Maybe they will (or even make it free when their server farm is up and running).
Google faces a very interesting challenge, IMHO. Their indispensable search and cloud apps don't look so indispensable once you try alternatives. That, along with google's voracious appetite for culling (or stealing, as in the wifi fiasco) private info and doing god knows what with it, will set quite few people running and screaming away from google in the future. You can count me--a prettty big google fan in years past--in this camp. What does that leave? Every droid-head I've ever known isn't willing to pay squat anything so I have no idea how they will transition away from their current business model and get their customers to pay for music or anything else.
Blackintosh is missing out on a treat. Seriously you guy's? I know Google hasn't made anything we couldn't have done without, bar Gmail. But don't condemn a product. People don't do it with the latest iGimmick, so don't do it with the gGimmick.
I'd like to know WHAT will Google do with their music store. \
First of all, what audio compression codec will they use? It's either going to be 256 kbps variable bit rate MP3 (but that would copy Amazon's format) or 256 kbps variable bit rate AAC (but that would copy the iTunes Plus format).
Secondly, will Google provide their own software that will load the music to Android-based cellphones and tablets and also offer a downloader program so the downloaded music will be in the playlist for Windows Media Player 11.0 or 12.0 or iTunes 9.x or 10.0 so it could be synced with the most popular portable music players out there?
In short, it appears the only successful competitor to the iTunes Store is the Amazon MP3 Downloading service, mostly because Amazon designed it to work directly with Windows Media Player or iTunes.
Bash Google all you like for nipping at the heels of Apple in the hardware space. Let Apple try to compete with Google in ads. Google Analytics rules as does search. Apple knows where their strengths are and it isn't in going head to head with Google. They need to chill on the anti-Google theme or they will be crushed. They should seriously be looking at a strategy of no matter where your media comes from, store it in iTunes for convenient access to your iDevices
Get real homey! Google just gives a large arena for advertisers to sell their sh**. Period. Google without their ads is nothing!!!!!!!!
Hardware?Child please. Google doesn't want to deal with hardware and all its problems. like MS they just want to do the software. That is easy! Apple does the software and the hardware. A far more complex task Google ain't even trying to emulate.
Brin and Page are two well coifed little birds sitting on 23 billion each on nothing but an expansive ad based business that has peaked. And all these Google acquisitions are just a rouse to make to puff up their stock price. God knows how many pension funds are heavily invested in Google. SMH!
And as far as the music goes, Google won't be challenging Itunes, but pimping for the music industry because they are the ones giving Apple and Google the RIGHT to sell their intellectual property.
And if you apply the competition theology to music than the more competition you have the more cheaper the product. Ok, then that means a song on Google will fetch about .000001 cents per down load!
CHAPTER 11 RIGHT THROUGH THAT DOOR(INSERT NAME OF MUSIC COMPANY).
And another thing we should clarify, the Android phone business isn't a single company but a coalition of competing hardware makers.
So I hate it when you misinformed trolls pit Apple Against Android. Apple has its own OS and its own media ecosystem.
As for the Android partners they have all dropped to the bottom of a sludge filled barrel!
Apple is the only cell phone maker with the pedigree that allows it to release just ONE phone a year and still be profitable. Everyone else is desperate!!!!!!
Six to 10 new phones every month just to keep up with the other 10,000 celly makers using the same freaking mobile OS. SICK!!
How many Android phones on ebay? Millions. And they will eventually suck the sells from new Android phone sells no matter how candy colored Googly makes their Mobile OS' UI.
"Finally here's an entity with the reach, resources and wherewithal to take on iTunes as a formidable competitor by tying it into search and Android mobile platform," said one label executive. "What you'll have is a very powerful player in the market that's good for the music business."
Apple should be VERY worried.
They have no good search, which makes their stores difficult to use. Google will make it VERY easy to find stuff.
Apple needs to finally get half-decent seach capabilities.
Competition is good for everyone, I agree. I also expect Google to launch their own version of the iPod Touch to go along with that music store sometime next year.
yes, i hope they take the steam out of apple so apple will stop being so draconian and actually allow certain things/features.
googles mistake was getting htc to do the phone. they need to get a great industrial design person and do their own hardware brand. i.e. just copy apples hardware design too
So what's considered successful if you're a competitor to Apple in the music space?
Profits being generated in excess of your weighted average cost of capital, and if you want to be fancy, greater than other divisions with the same fixed expenses. Same as any other business venture.
I've already done it and ain't looked back. Mobileme is actually pretty awesome. I didn't realize how so until I'd used it for a month or two. Apple should lower their price to like 19.95 single and 29.95 family and they'd have tons of new sign ups. Maybe they will (or even make it free when their server farm is up and running).
Google faces a very interesting challenge, IMHO. Their indispensable search and cloud apps don't look so indispensable once you try alternatives. That, along with google's voracious appetite for culling (or stealing, as in the wifi fiasco) private info and doing god knows what with it, will set quite few people running and screaming away from google in the future. You can count me--a prettty big google fan in years past--in this camp. What does that leave? Every droid-head I've ever known isn't willing to pay squat anything so I have no idea how they will transition away from their current business model and get their customers to pay for music or anything else.
i paid for my android phone. i pay my monthly bill. i bought software from Android Market and i have a premium google account. why that and not 'mobileme' (god i hate that name)? because i don't like being caged up in the apple garden in some respects. <removed the harsh part>
"Finally here's an entity with the reach, resources and wherewithal to take on iTunes as a formidable competitor by tying it into search and Android mobile platform," said one label executive. "What you'll have is a very powerful player in the market that's good for the music business."
In the past, music labels have clashed with Apple CEO Steve Jobs over pricing and formatting. Executives hope that competing digital music retailers will provide labels with better leverage when negotiating with Jobs.
In other words, music industry execs are thrilled that Google will take a smaller slice of the pie than Apple, and allow them to do whatever they want with regard to complexity in pricing. I wouldn't rule out success (assuming Oracle doesn't kill Android altogether, due to an epic blunder on Google's part), but it reminds me of the expression "You can't unring the bell" -- the kind of simplicity in pricing that Jobs has championed has been the norm for a generation now -- it may not be possible for the music industry to go back to something like what they had before.
you mean inventing something and then have every company copy it to try to compete with them?
And exactly what did Apple "invent"? There were mp3 players way before the iPod and online music stores before iTunes. Integrating the two in a nice package was all they did. Competition is almost always good. Choice as a consumer is all I ask for. Its scary when one person or company has too much market share in a certain industry.
Comments
Once again, "Do No Evil" Google enters a market to hand back control to the entrenched powers as opposed to the customers. Like they did with Verizon. And like they will with Sony and the likes now.
Awesome.
Then they will be looking for a fruit logo.
I doubt it. They already found their inspiration for logos.
http://www.labnol.org/software/conne...ome-logo/5120/
Ovi with Nokia the largest handset maker on earth.
Google a new contender.
I wonder how companies like Samsung who have set up their own music store for their MP3 players, Android phones and have just released their first Android iPad and Motorola who also have a music store for their Android phones will feel about competition from Google.
I don't think Apple should be too concerned, a lot of people still don't know who Google (the company) is apart from looking for stuff on the Internet.
Every day I see blank looks as I try to explain what Android is and that it's made by Google, alien concepts ticking over in non-techheads minds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouof1...layer_embedded
No - pretentious, wanna-be Apple killers pounding their chest and proclaiming their vaporware to be superior to Apple's shipping products. (Not to mention the Greek chorus online clownboys following in their wake, predicting Apple's imminent demise.)
Competition? Yeah, sure, Apple only has a ten-year lead. They only put Tower Records and their ilk out of business, that's all. They're only the biggest seller of music on the planet today. Sure. They're terrified of competition.
the greek chorus which happens to be a (self proclaimed) geek chorus.
very soon Im flushing my Gmail account for Mobile me
just cant handle Google anymore they are becoming MS more and more every day
I've already done it and ain't looked back. Mobileme is actually pretty awesome. I didn't realize how so until I'd used it for a month or two. Apple should lower their price to like 19.95 single and 29.95 family and they'd have tons of new sign ups. Maybe they will (or even make it free when their server farm is up and running).
Google faces a very interesting challenge, IMHO. Their indispensable search and cloud apps don't look so indispensable once you try alternatives. That, along with google's voracious appetite for culling (or stealing, as in the wifi fiasco) private info and doing god knows what with it, will set quite few people running and screaming away from google in the future. You can count me--a prettty big google fan in years past--in this camp. What does that leave? Every droid-head I've ever known isn't willing to pay squat anything so I have no idea how they will transition away from their current business model and get their customers to pay for music or anything else.
First of all, what audio compression codec will they use? It's either going to be 256 kbps variable bit rate MP3 (but that would copy Amazon's format) or 256 kbps variable bit rate AAC (but that would copy the iTunes Plus format).
Secondly, will Google provide their own software that will load the music to Android-based cellphones and tablets and also offer a downloader program so the downloaded music will be in the playlist for Windows Media Player 11.0 or 12.0 or iTunes 9.x or 10.0 so it could be synced with the most popular portable music players out there?
In short, it appears the only successful competitor to the iTunes Store is the Amazon MP3 Downloading service, mostly because Amazon designed it to work directly with Windows Media Player or iTunes.
Bash Google all you like for nipping at the heels of Apple in the hardware space. Let Apple try to compete with Google in ads. Google Analytics rules as does search. Apple knows where their strengths are and it isn't in going head to head with Google. They need to chill on the anti-Google theme or they will be crushed. They should seriously be looking at a strategy of no matter where your media comes from, store it in iTunes for convenient access to your iDevices
Get real homey! Google just gives a large arena for advertisers to sell their sh**. Period. Google without their ads is nothing!!!!!!!!
Hardware?Child please. Google doesn't want to deal with hardware and all its problems. like MS they just want to do the software. That is easy! Apple does the software and the hardware. A far more complex task Google ain't even trying to emulate.
Brin and Page are two well coifed little birds sitting on 23 billion each on nothing but an expansive ad based business that has peaked. And all these Google acquisitions are just a rouse to make to puff up their stock price. God knows how many pension funds are heavily invested in Google. SMH!
And as far as the music goes, Google won't be challenging Itunes, but pimping for the music industry because they are the ones giving Apple and Google the RIGHT to sell their intellectual property.
And if you apply the competition theology to music than the more competition you have the more cheaper the product. Ok, then that means a song on Google will fetch about .000001 cents per down load!
CHAPTER 11 RIGHT THROUGH THAT DOOR(INSERT NAME OF MUSIC COMPANY).
And another thing we should clarify, the Android phone business isn't a single company but a coalition of competing hardware makers.
So I hate it when you misinformed trolls pit Apple Against Android. Apple has its own OS and its own media ecosystem.
As for the Android partners they have all dropped to the bottom of a sludge filled barrel!
Apple is the only cell phone maker with the pedigree that allows it to release just ONE phone a year and still be profitable. Everyone else is desperate!!!!!!
Six to 10 new phones every month just to keep up with the other 10,000 celly makers using the same freaking mobile OS. SICK!!
How many Android phones on ebay? Millions. And they will eventually suck the sells from new Android phone sells no matter how candy colored Googly makes their Mobile OS' UI.
That is my 2 cents!
"Finally here's an entity with the reach, resources and wherewithal to take on iTunes as a formidable competitor by tying it into search and Android mobile platform," said one label executive. "What you'll have is a very powerful player in the market that's good for the music business."
Apple should be VERY worried.
They have no good search, which makes their stores difficult to use. Google will make it VERY easy to find stuff.
Apple needs to finally get half-decent seach capabilities.
Keep in mind Brin and Page were just started a search engine, which is very different from selling music.
Brin and Page seem to be in the habit of hiring brilliant people. I doubt that they are doing everything themselves.
Would you be surprised if they had a VP in charge of this who is both smart and experienced? I wouldn't.
Most Google/Android fans are spoiled freeloaders
Is this what passes for reasoned analysis around here?
I bet they don't pay one bit of attention to it.
Google will screw it up - mainly because you and I aren't Google's customers - their advertisers are!
But the advertisers are also AI's customers. You and I are not AI's customers. Does that mean that AI will screw it up?
Competition is good for everyone, I agree. I also expect Google to launch their own version of the iPod Touch to go along with that music store sometime next year.
yes, i hope they take the steam out of apple so apple will stop being so draconian and actually allow certain things/features.
googles mistake was getting htc to do the phone. they need to get a great industrial design person and do their own hardware brand. i.e. just copy apples hardware design too
So what's considered successful if you're a competitor to Apple in the music space?
Profits being generated in excess of your weighted average cost of capital, and if you want to be fancy, greater than other divisions with the same fixed expenses. Same as any other business venture.
I've already done it and ain't looked back. Mobileme is actually pretty awesome. I didn't realize how so until I'd used it for a month or two. Apple should lower their price to like 19.95 single and 29.95 family and they'd have tons of new sign ups. Maybe they will (or even make it free when their server farm is up and running).
Google faces a very interesting challenge, IMHO. Their indispensable search and cloud apps don't look so indispensable once you try alternatives. That, along with google's voracious appetite for culling (or stealing, as in the wifi fiasco) private info and doing god knows what with it, will set quite few people running and screaming away from google in the future. You can count me--a prettty big google fan in years past--in this camp. What does that leave? Every droid-head I've ever known isn't willing to pay squat anything so I have no idea how they will transition away from their current business model and get their customers to pay for music or anything else.
i paid for my android phone. i pay my monthly bill. i bought software from Android Market and i have a premium google account. why that and not 'mobileme' (god i hate that name)? because i don't like being caged up in the apple garden in some respects. <removed the harsh part>
"Finally here's an entity with the reach, resources and wherewithal to take on iTunes as a formidable competitor by tying it into search and Android mobile platform," said one label executive. "What you'll have is a very powerful player in the market that's good for the music business."
In the past, music labels have clashed with Apple CEO Steve Jobs over pricing and formatting. Executives hope that competing digital music retailers will provide labels with better leverage when negotiating with Jobs.
In other words, music industry execs are thrilled that Google will take a smaller slice of the pie than Apple, and allow them to do whatever they want with regard to complexity in pricing. I wouldn't rule out success (assuming Oracle doesn't kill Android altogether, due to an epic blunder on Google's part), but it reminds me of the expression "You can't unring the bell" -- the kind of simplicity in pricing that Jobs has championed has been the norm for a generation now -- it may not be possible for the music industry to go back to something like what they had before.
you mean inventing something and then have every company copy it to try to compete with them?
And exactly what did Apple "invent"? There were mp3 players way before the iPod and online music stores before iTunes. Integrating the two in a nice package was all they did. Competition is almost always good. Choice as a consumer is all I ask for. Its scary when one person or company has too much market share in a certain industry.