Gates down playing Steve's influence
For anyone who has not read it, you should readApple's online music coup ignites a budding industry. While this article, and many other articles about iTunes Music Store are contributing its success being the influence of Steve Jobs negotiations with the record companies, towards the end of the article there is a quote from Gates that the record companies will come on board with anybody and that Microsoft can do better than Apple. I may have interpreted the article wrong. Read it and you decide.
Comments
how long's it gonna take for M$ to roll a store into media player/windows? Not too long I'll wager. Or to make the back-end so someone else can do it?
Apple was a little premature, they should have had the windows versions ready to go now. If they can get it up within a couple of months, that's good too, but every day that 99% of worldwide users can get the idea without getting the product just makes the imitators job that much easier!
Originally posted by Matsu
um-hmmm...
how long's it gonna take for M$ to roll a store into media player/windows? Not too long I'll wager. Or to make the back-end so someone else can do it?
Apple was a little premature, they should have had the windows versions ready to go now. If they can get it up within a couple of months, that's good too, but every day that 99% of worldwide users can get the idea without getting the product just makes the imitators job that much easier!
Wrong it's not easy as it looks. Apple's had the Apple Store and has been blasting out Trailers and Software Downloads for years. Think about this now. Microsoft has the software downloads but they don't have the store. While they have the resources to do so...the question is "Will they?"
I doubt it. Microsoft has to rework Windows Media, create a store and market this thing in 6 months before iTMS hits PC's. Ain't gonna happen. Apple will continue to gain momentum as they go Global and then to PCs. Once iTunes is available on PC...bye bye Music Match. I bet you will see iTunes for the PC as #2 and possibly #1 within a couple of years if Apple takes the port seriously.
It's hard to make quantitative comparisons between their software any more. It's more of a qualitative difference. Problem is, most people are fine with what Miscrosoft pulls together in that respect, or else they simply aren't aware of any alternatives, Mac or otherwise.
Originally posted by Matsu
Apple was a little premature, they should have had the windows versions ready to go now. If they can get it up within a couple of months, that's good too, but every day that 99% of worldwide users can get the idea without getting the product just makes the imitators job that much easier!
Perhaps not. Apparently, Apple only has 2/5 of the record companies signed up for iTMS for Windows. They are watching iTMS for Mac to see what happens. In other words, it is doubtful that iTMS for Windows could (realistically) be launched by Apple (or anyone else for that matter) right now. This is a business, political, marketing, licensing issue. Almost all of it has to do with with the "Big 5" want to do.
I expect Apple to convince them, and to have some exclusivity for a short period of time.
Apple may be the only company positioned to protect the music industries properties, present a competent plan, and assuage their "control" fears. Mebbe nobody else can have the right combination of good plans and good blood?
But, if they aren't ready, that leaves competitors a window. M$ may need 2 or 3 tries to get something right, but they can support an initial failure, get people to live with the shortcomings of V.2 and really start to bear down by the time they get to v3 of whatever product. If, OTOH, Apple is ready, and they're just waiting for the other 3/5ths to give the Windows store a green light, then that's a different story. The project seems to be going very well, if mac is a test case for the broader market, windows iTunesmusicstore should be here sooner than 6 months.
We don't know what goes on behind closed doors, and while we love to assume the worst, most often, the reasons behind a company's actions are kept secret, but are validated at the time of the decision, for better or worse. To think that the people at Apple do not feel the way we do would be dumb. I think they really want a windows version. They are doing what they have to to be able to do so. That to me makes more sense, and is probably closer in line with reality.
Just some food for thought for those of us not in the know, but know what to do.
Originally posted by Matsu
[B]um-hmmm...
how long's it gonna take for M$ to roll a store into media player/windows? Not too long I'll wager.
"All you need is 4 simple ingredients:
The servers
The bandwidth
The software
And the music."
Yes...this sounds very simple. Everyone can whip that up in a few months.
The software can take a few months to develop. The servers can be set up pretty fast also.
The cataloguing of the music...the encoding...making the deals with the record companies...and serving this music 24/7 to a waaaaay bigger group of people than Mac users is a whole different ballpark.
Sorry but setting up this kind of stuff doesn't take a few months. It'll take a year or more to do properly. MS can try to speed up the process but they'll flop if they don't do it right the first time.
Originally posted by M3D Jack
Apple's track record of doing something innovative and then staying one step ahead has been less than exemplary.
I beg to differ but I digress...arguing with a Mod is bad voodoo.
Originally posted by BuonRotto
Nevermind security patches. Just finding a way to edit your credit card info is sure to be a brain-teaser.
Na I`m sure they will have the ever handy Edit your credit info wizzard
Cnet covers Microsoft's $29.99/year MSN Radio Plus service, which offers musical content without the "interstitial advertisements" of other MSN Internet radio streams.
Why doesn't everybody remember that probably, THE MAJOR RECORD LABELS DON'T WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH MICROSOFT
Finally.