“Apple blew away the competition in hard drive
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FUD. Start comparing Apples with Oranges, not Apples to Apples.
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Once again they are comaring the mini to the iPod. They should be comparing the mini to the flash players. Now all of a sudden its a good deal.
The biggest criticism of the iPod/Mini is that it can’t support WMA decoding and iTunes can’t transfer WMAs to it in the first place. Hypothetically speaking, how much does apple stand to lose by paying MS the license to get WMA working in iTunes and on the iPod? I think Jobs believes that supporting WMA will kill the iTMS and will allow people to switch to other media players. Unfounded in facts, but a possibility.
I believe that it’ll extend the two iPods into the vast WMA marketshare and will increase the sales dramatically. Remember, iTMS isn’t really making money.
Thoughts?
WMA vast marketshare? Where’s the supporting data?
I’d say that MP3 file format is still #1.
If anyone compares the iPod Mini to iPod, I am sure they will end up spending $50 more and buy an iPod. If they really want the small one, they will buy iPod Mini. Either way, it is a win-win situation for Apple.
Apple holds upwards of 80% of the legit download market with iTunes Music Store. Apple’s iPod rules the player market. iPod mini debuts tomorrow with over 100K pre-orders.
FSCK WMA. It is shit and the also-ran music player companies should be lining up to kiss Jobs’ feet and let them include AAC/Fairplay support in their POS, horrible players. Which Jobs will not do.
So, death to everyone else. Apple has pulled it off – the analysts and general public morons just haven’t quite figured it out, yet.
It’s over. Apple, AAC, and iPod have won. Microsoft, WMA, and the likes of the Dell Digital Junkbox have lost.
The winner does not adopt the losers’ failed products.
As far as portable music players go, Apple can keep Fairplay to itself, but it really needs to think about licensing the format to manufacturers for use in other AV products. Think Tivo, B&O, Bose, Philips, even JVC/Panasonic. Their support will send the Fairplay market share up even further.
Apple is ahead in this game. But it is early in the game. If you study the consumer market you will know that on one product ever remains at the top. Apple knows this. I doubt that the iPod will always be the number one player. So I think Apples’s game plan is to take advatage of its early lead and milk it for alll it is worth. Then as the closed system is about to fall they will open it up. Everyone will pay to get ACC and fair play and then Apple is making money off every store and every player that can play it. That is what I think their plan is. Build ACC as strong as you can then open it up and make money like mad. You own the standard you own a lot. Ask Microsoft with Office.
Matthew
Remind me to cancel my subscription.
You have a subscription!?
subscription? you actually pay to read that stuff?
opod mini for a maxi price!
with 100,000 per-orders they must be brain-dead if they think it’s over priced. What else sells like this and has not even hit the market yet?
“Everyone will pay to get ACC and fair play and then Apple is making money off every store and every player that can play it.”
Matthew is right. Apple needs to get a couple million iPod minis out the door as well as another million iPods and they can then open AAC/Fairplay to others.
Other MP3 makers like Rio will gladly pay the licensing fee to save them from going bankrupt. This will also keep others from saying Apple is being monopolistic.
It is just too soon to open Fairplay- maybe by year’s end?
Actually Apple should license WMA for a WMA to AAC/fairplay converter. Make it a free download, and it also converts the DRM to the less restrictive yet still their Fairplay. Then using iTunes, or the Ipod would be useful for everybody. Note to everyone, I don’t use WMA I prefer mp3, and AAC. I m jsut trying to get even more converts.
My wife’s engraved, Pink Mini arrived today – a work of art, and I like it better than any version yet. When the capacity goes up – I’m getting one too. I have way more music than she does, and this Mini is perfect for that crowd.
Apple wins again. Word.
Then the Mini is less cheaply made (literally) than make then the MuVo–and of course has plenty of features the MuVo lacks. Each iPod Mini costs over $200 to make according to the financial call Apple held with financial analysts.
And other players cost MORE than the Mini. MUCH more for less music capacity. $450 for 240 songs on the iRiver? No, I don’t think Apple’s being greedy, just selling a higher-end product. By 20%–not off the charts.
The problem with Apple licensing WMA is that lends credibility to WMA as a standard. Even as a converter.
As the WMA stores such as Napster begin to fail we need to see new ‘competition’ selling AAC/Fairplay music. With other players licensing Fairplay and other stores selling Fairplay the consumer will have their choice of stores, players and OS. M$ will have nothing.
Yeah what a gift to Microsoft it would be when we see headlines like ‘Apple licences WMA, is this an admission that AAC can’t ultimately win?’ however inacurate thats what much of the press would say and as iPod/iTunes has become a mindset the last thing it needs is that to be threatened. Opening AAC fairplay up gradually and with the right timing is, as others say, the answer. Importantly this must be done before signs of levelling off or slight dents in market share take place as they eventually will if it remains predominantly a single company affair however strong it presently sits in the market place. Allowing it to filter into non core products (to Apple) like phones and hi fi equipment, anything Apple isn’t interested in producing itself, is the start, doing deals like that with HP. In a way they need to instil it widely into all sorts of devices as Microsoft is trying with Windows for it to remain dominant. Stage 2 is to gradually open up the itunes/AAC Fairplay player market to selected others who are making commitments to the combination (excluding others that are trojan horsing) to keep the whole affair growing and gradually squeezing out WMA. If the timing is wrong of course we simply get a replay of Palm.
It’s not that Jobs thinks licensing WMA will kill iTMS — it’s that Apple is in a position of strength, leading the market right now. When you’re in front, you can let people come to you. Going to your competitors and paying them so that they can be more marketable is just plain stupid.
After all, look at Microsoft. They won’t even do this when courts order them to do so.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,8728989^15306^^nbv^,00.html
“The tracks will also be available in the AAC Format, compatible with iPod and some other devices”
when other services (like Destra here in Oz) do the same, then all these Apple locking-in talk will die, die, die!
http://news.com.com/1601-2-5159150.html
i can’t wait to hear you all complain about the bias in this video review of the mini by cnet.
it seems pretty fair and glowing to me, but I know how this crowd likes to get its panties in a bunch over *something*.
… and Napster slowly slipping farther behind and closer to functional irrelevance.
How long before all other iPod imitators begin to graciously, if not earnestly, offer AAC for consumers who “want to download from iTMS”.
civilisation stuart:
I don’t wanna disappoint ya, CS. I thought the lighting was atrocious and the sound miserable. The one guy needed a decent haircut and the other guy fondling the mini and calling it “sexy” made me feel a little bit uncomfortable. Other than that, not bad.
>>The one guy needed a decent haircut…
That’s a “I don’t care because I’m cool New Economy secure with myself no matter what the masses may think even if I do work for a guy named Shelby” haircut.
>>the other guy fondling the mini and calling it “sexy” made me feel a little bit uncomfortable.
Agreed.