Newstand, iAD and now iTunes Radio dumped, Airplay stagnant, the News app a flop...what next?
You forgot Beats, App Store and low merchant adopting of Pay. When does Cook wake up and realize Eddy Cue is not cutting it? Is there one thing he oversees that could be considered best in class? No.
It's entirely possible that Apple's management is privy to operational details that you, as an armchair CEO, aren't aware of. To begin with, the problem with Apple Pay has nothing to do with Apple, and more to do with the rollout of NFC terminals to retailers. There's not much Apple can do about that.
Here in the UK, Apple Pay is going great guns. The banks are falling over themselves to advertise it. Tesco has just rolled out NFC and Apple Pay is displayed prominently on all the self-service terminals. Most of the petrol stations around me support it. The only annoying thing is the £30 limit – again, nothing much Apple can do about that; that is controlled by the banks.
You forgot Beats, App Store and low merchant adopting of Pay. When does Cook wake up and realize Eddy Cue is not cutting it? Is there one thing he oversees that could be considered best in class? No.
It's entirely possible that Apple's management is privy to operational details that you, as an armchair CEO, aren't aware of. To begin with, the problem with Apple Pay has nothing to do with Apple, and more to do with the rollout of NFC terminals to retailers. There's not much Apple can do about that.
Here in the UK, Apple Pay is going great guns. The banks are falling over themselves to advertise it. Tesco has just rolled out NFC and Apple Pay is displayed prominently on all the self-service terminals. Most of the petrol stations around me support it. The only annoying thing is the £30 limit – again, nothing much Apple can do about that; that is controlled by the banks.
Thats true of the UK, alright. The Ads were dominant over Christmas. Not obvious in the rest of Europe though, although that might be the relative strength of the UK iOS market.
<SNIP> ...most of my Podcast listening is the TWIT network and use a dedicated app for that.... <SNIP>
Which TWiT app do you use? I use TWiTpad on my iPad and it's great, it does audio, video, live feed and even displays the chat room but it crashes an awful lot.
I was using TWIT Pro which was nearly perfect. With all of the above plus truly nifty +/- 10 sec scrubber controls I'd love to see on YouTube and all other video apps on both mobiles and the web. And never do.
But it's suddenly disappeared and the installed version only works on stored 'casts already downloaded. Meanwhile, all the reviews I've read on potential replacements seem really quite mixed, so haven't downloaded another, instead staying with the clunky TWIT.TV browser interface for the moment and considering a does-it-all pod catcher, altho' I'm not all that taken by most of podcasting, really.....
Apple didn't release iTunes Radio over here in the UK, so this news doesn't really affect us. We were, however, paying £21.99 a year for iTunes Match, while those in the US were paying $25 (+tax) for iTunes Match AND iTunes Radio. We were already being overcharged by about $4 a month.
That it's being rolled into Apple Music is moot. We're once again being overcharged in the UK. £9.99 vs. €9.99 vs. $9.99 (+tax). We're paying the most for the same product. What incentive do we have to pay the highest price for the same product? Is iTunes Radio going to be part of UK Apple Music, or will we again be charged more for a lesser product?
I would subscribe to Apple Music if Apple were to have a family option that doesn't involve tying our purchases and payment methods together. I just want a discount for having two Apple IDs on an account, but that's not possible. Instead, they created a more complex arrangement involving other members requesting authorisation for purchases on a card. Apple used to be all about choice and giving us the best experience, but no longer, IMO.
If Apple change their pricing models, they might get people to sign up. None of my friends are subscribing to Apple Music for the reasons above. Rant over.
I don't think it's the smartest move as it will send all these people back to Pandora etc in a heartbeat that weren't going to sub AM anyway.
HOWEVER, my bigger problem is what about iTunes Match customers? Comercial Free iTunes Radio is/was a part of that. If Apple is taking that away when it was paid for, not cool.
From the current iTunes Match page: "Subscribe to iTunes Match on your Mac, PC, or iOS device, and listen to on-demand music stations without ads."
So if this only affects ad-supported channels, this means channels like NPR and those of many public radio stations will still be available for free?
Just buy a WiFi internet radio like the ones sold by Grace Digital. I have two of these, one standalone and one as a tuner into my sound system and they are great. No computer necessary, either. all the NPR, broadcast stations and internet-only stations world-wide you can imagine, all for free. Even with Live365 gone, there will still be tens of thousands of stations available.
Comments
Here in the UK, Apple Pay is going great guns. The banks are falling over themselves to advertise it. Tesco has just rolled out NFC and Apple Pay is displayed prominently on all the self-service terminals. Most of the petrol stations around me support it. The only annoying thing is the £30 limit – again, nothing much Apple can do about that; that is controlled by the banks.
Is the Mac Pro using Intel's latest chips?
But it's suddenly disappeared and the installed version only works on stored 'casts already downloaded. Meanwhile, all the reviews I've read on potential replacements seem really quite mixed, so haven't downloaded another, instead staying with the clunky TWIT.TV browser interface for the moment and considering a does-it-all pod catcher, altho' I'm not all that taken by most of podcasting, really.....
That it's being rolled into Apple Music is moot. We're once again being overcharged in the UK. £9.99 vs. €9.99 vs. $9.99 (+tax). We're paying the most for the same product. What incentive do we have to pay the highest price for the same product? Is iTunes Radio going to be part of UK Apple Music, or will we again be charged more for a lesser product?
I would subscribe to Apple Music if Apple were to have a family option that doesn't involve tying our purchases and payment methods together. I just want a discount for having two Apple IDs on an account, but that's not possible. Instead, they created a more complex arrangement involving other members requesting authorisation for purchases on a card. Apple used to be all about choice and giving us the best experience, but no longer, IMO.
If Apple change their pricing models, they might get people to sign up. None of my friends are subscribing to Apple Music for the reasons above. Rant over.
Just buy a WiFi internet radio like the ones sold by Grace Digital. I have two of these, one standalone and one as a tuner into my sound system and they are great. No computer necessary, either. all the NPR, broadcast stations and internet-only stations world-wide you can imagine, all for free. Even with Live365 gone, there will still be tens of thousands of stations available.