“According to documentation leaked to the New York Times, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser has sent an email ultimatum to Apple CEO Steve Jobs: Join a tactical alliance with Real, or we’re moving to Microsoft technology. The email, which was allegedly sent April 9, portrays a desperate Glaser, who seems to realize that upcoming Microsoft audio technology will allow Windows-based music services to plow aside competition from Apple and other company’s that don’t offer subscription-based offerings; Apple’s store, though extremely popular, is currently a loss-leader for the company because record company executives demand a high percentage of each sale and Apple must foot the architectural costs of the store,” Paul Thurrott writes for Windows & .NET Magazine.
[MacDailyNews Note: Yesterday, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Finance, Peter Oppenheimer particpated in Apple’s 2004 2nd Quarter Conference Call and stated, “iTunes Music Store generated a ‘small profit’ in 2nd quarter.”]
“People familiar with Jobs say it’s unlikely that Apple will reverse it proprietary strategy and join RealNetworks in an ‘us-against-them’ stand against Microsoft. For his part, Glaser says he’s surprised the email leaked. He describes the message as ‘reaching out’ to Jobs before he switches camps to WMA. ‘Why is Steve afraid of opening up the iPod?’ Glaser asked. ‘Steve is showing a high level of fear that I don’t understand,'” Thurrott writes.
“Expect Glaser’s email message, however, to fall on deaf ears. Aside from Jobs’ hubris and inability to see the big picture, Glaser isn’t helping his cause by repeatedly berating Apple for not opening up its iTunes store, iPod, and Protected AAC audio format. In England recently to push his new RealPlayer 10 software, Glaser again chastised Apple onstage for following the same unworkable strategy with digital music as it plowed with the Macintosh, which has fallen to record low usage and market share numbers under Jobs,” Thurrott writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Jobs is unable to “see the big picture?” If anyone, ever, could claim to be able to “see the big picture,” it is Steven P. Jobs. This has nothing to do with the Mac and licensing and OSes and the past. Too many iPods are being sold, Paul. Nobody who owns one will need WMA. And you know it. We do agree with Thurrott on one point: that Glaser is desperate.
Sorry Anony Mouse….. Your flaming troll bait tactics and poor research willnot work here. Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple just after the Mac was introduced. Pre 1998 Macs, Newton, Open Doc, and etc were under the leadership of many other CEOs.
During the bad times you mentioned Jobs was doing the NeXT thing. You may or may not know that in 1996/97 Apple purchased NeXT as the foundation for the new OS, which became OS X.
Jobs return to Apple (with NeXT) and his actions to ditch unprofitable stuff like (sadly) the Newton is what gave the world the iMac and OS X. No CEO of any computer conmpany would have had the vision and the guts to bring to market things like wireless networking and the iPod….
BTW, the $400 “fad” is going strong with no immediate signs of stopping. As you may know, the Christmas season is ususally where all conmpanies that deal in retail operations make the lions share of the money to help them through the other 3/4s of the year. Apple sold more iPods this quarter than at Christmas.
I’d say that Mr Jobs has a fairly good grip on the vision and big picture thing. To be fair, when he is right its HUGE (read iPod) when he is wrong its equally HUGE (think dvd instead of CD burners in G3s and early G4s)
hey anony mouse, don’t you got some BSODs to reboot?
AHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
“…when he is wrong its equally HUGE (think dvd instead of CD burners in G3s and early G4s)”
Yeah, I bought one of the last iMacs with DVD-ROM but not burner. After I bought a $300 FireWire burner they included one in the revised iMac. That hurt. I learned not to order a new Mac in December!
I think it is funny that Buy.com is selling all the iPod models and many iPod accessories even though the ‘BuyMusic at Buy.com’ doesn’t support the iPod (yes, I know – it can’t). I guess Scott Blum doesn’t believe in WMA enough to sell only WMA-compatible MP3 players?
Thurot is just one in a long line of hacks who gets paid for dissing “the opposition”. He just as easily would sell his mother if it got him some money. This is the kind of person that makes life interesting. Jerks are everywhere and he obviously comes from a long line of them. He’s been wrong so often that his self-delusional behavior is pitiful. He should be institutionalized.
in another thread I gave Thurrots alikes a week time to fire their salvo against Apple results. As foreseen, idiots have been very fast at their Windows typewriters.
Also our load of trolls here in other threads…
Thur-D’oh!
The writing style of this Anony Mouse troll is strangely similar to that of Thur-d’oh. Hmmmm…
BTW, I signed that petition. Let’s send the results to Thur-idiot’s “publisher” at WinNetRag.
Anony Mouse:
A computer, an OS and a Newton are SOOOO different from a portable music player. A piece that appeals to a much wider market than the previous products mentioned…..ESPECIALLY many many years ago when at the time Steve was not the head of Apple and those times were different. Your argument is baseless.
Couldn’t we have predicted this from Thurrawthroat. I think we should start predicting just ahead of his articles just what his articles will say. I’ll bet we’d be dead on much of the time. He is soooo predictable. If we pre-predict his articles and send them to his employer in advance of his articles, maybe they’ll catch on and realize just what a joke he is and has been. Not only is he stupid, there are some really stupid people surrounding him. His title is a “paid Apple negativity expert” We should challenge him to join our forum at a certain time and explain his idiocracies.
The question is: Will Microsoft’s music store be ‘good enough’ for most people? Will people ditch their iPod for a WMF player?
I don’t see the harm in licensing FairPlay to Real, Sony, or anybody else. If it allows users to download music and play it on an iPod, Apple wins.
Thurrott is a tool.
My dog has got a bigger brain than him, and I haven’t even got a dog!
I think his opinions are hilarious. To write what he has written takes a level of stupidity that levels on insanity. Let’s hope those blokes in white coats are getting ready to smash his front door down and take him away to a nice, comfy padded cell.
When it comes to Thurott’s comparing Apple selling 749,000 Macs to 35 million PCs in the same time period, I’d like to see a company by company breakdown of 2Q sales.
Methinks it would show how many cheap box PC companies may not be doing as well as Thurott thinks they are. But just like any lemming, Thurott thinks there’s safety in numbers. So I won’t hold my breath waiting for any report of his on individual PC company sales figures.
MacSmiley: Apple is the third largest computer manufacture on a brand by brand basis. Dell and HP the first two.
When was the last time Thurott challenged Dell or M$ or Gateway or Rio or anybody else to release specific figures on sales of a particular CPU or MP3 player. (Answer: he hasn’t). What does it matter if Apple actually delivered 100,000 minis last quarter. It’s pretty damn sure they didn’t because of a shortage of Hitachi drives. Does this make them liars or failures? Of course not. Now, when supplies eventually meet demand in the next quarter and Apple is able to fullfill all the pent up orders from around the world you can rest assured Thurott will never mention it again and will move on to something else. He’s a bully, that’s all. Anyone want to give him a bloody nose? (rhetorically, of course).
Thurrott, your articles are so entertaining, please keep writing.
P.S. You’re not helping your cause by talking too much about Apple’s successes.
Of course Real Media wants to be on the iPod. Why not try to make your online music store be compatible with the player that owns 40% of the enitre market and rapidly growing. Real Media should make their online music store compatible with the iPod not Apple make Real Media compatible with the iPod.
Just because Real is seriously threatened by MS is no reason for Apple to align itself with Real. Apple would be better off to ignore Real, let them go away, and then, if market conditions dictate, open the ipod up to WMA. Once again, MS will be exposed as a monopoly and have their hands tied dealing with the legal repercussions. But really, an iPod user has two good options: MP3 or AAC. What more do they need right now. It is up to RIAA to unify things, not Apple.
me,
The RIAA has nothing to do with the format wars. They simply look out for the interests of their clients: record companies, song publishers and artists. I’m amazed at how many people don’t understand what the RIAA is. They receive no monies from the sale of product. They receive money from the record labels to be their eyes and ears on what is happening… illegal downloading, bootlegging CD’s, stealing money, in other words, from the people who depend on getting paid for their hard work, creativity,etc. I doubt anyone here would want somebody (other then Uncle Sam, and that’s another story) to take money out of their paychecks every week. That’s what people do when they ignore intellectual property rights and steal.
ask all those people selling ipod mini’s for 350 to 450 bucks on ebay if its a failure, don’t see any dell jukeboxes going over cost…
Nevermind Turdott; in fact, nevermind the iPod Mini, what do you think will happen when Apple announces extension products to the iPod? I could use a portable (as opposed to pocketable) unit with a cheaper non-micro 40-gig hard drive and speakers — in fact, I could use a couple of those. Optional Airport synching would be good, as well as larger LCD that could (cough) put out some visual effects and a remote controller. Basically, I’m talking iTunes jukebox as hardware. My guess is the market for that is even larger than the iPod’s. No wonder Glaser wants “in.”
less is more
yourtalking about a pda. or in otherwords a brick. the ipod is fine as is. and is also used for some as a fasion accessory. if it aint broke dont fix it.
Impressive. It never ceases to amaze me the amazing depths that this dolt is willing to go to in his ever downward-spiraling descent into irrelevence. The question is, why would ANYBODY read his tripe?
The guy makes Forrest Gump look like Einstein. How could anyone possibly be so dense? Oh wait, he’s on Microsoft’s payroll. Ah, that explains it.
agree with you pkradd. good points.
if people didn’t steal (or give it away illegally or allow it to be stolen), then DRM wouldn’t be needed and the RIAA wouldn’t have to defend the artists’ rights to being compensated for their labor (and the record labels contractual rights to those artists’ creations). So how do we get people not to steal? Prosecute (RIAA) or prevent (DRM). Is there a third way?
That said, DRM is not the perfect solution, however, because it hinders me from being able to play a tune that I bought, on any and all players that I own (or will own in the future). Apple gives us some flexibility (3 computers, unlimited iPods, unlimited CDs, local area networks) but its not hinder-free. So it does get in the way of those who have no intention to steal (or allow others to steal).
If anyone wants the name of Paul’s ultimate boss when he’s whoring for Connected Home Media, Winsupersite and WinNT Mag, it is one David Nussbaum (dnussbaum@penton.com), who is described as follows (http://www.penton.com/cgi-bin/bios/list.pl) �
[B]David B. Nussbaum, President, Penton Technology & Lifestyle Media Division, and Executive Vice President, Penton Media, Inc.[/B]
[I]David Nussbaum is an Executive Vice President of Penton Media and President of the Penton Technology & Lifestyle Media Division. In his role, Nussbaum has senior operating responsibility for Penton’s domestic media franchises serving the Internet/information technology, electronics and natural products industries, which include leading brands such as the Windows & .NET Magazine Network, Internet World, Electronic Design and The Natural Foods Merchandiser magazines, and the Natural Products Expos. Nussbaum also oversees Penton’s international operations, including Penton Media Europe and Penton Media Asia, which produce integrated media portfolios serving the technology, manufacturing, out-of-home leisure, and natural products industries.[/I]
Curiously, in an e-mail to me (06/03/04), Paul claims “I don’t work for Penton” and “I don’t know (or care) who dnussbaum@penton.com is”.
Paul Thurrott is the news editor for Windows & .NET Magazine. He writes a weekly editorial for Windows & .NET Magazine UPDATE (http://www.win2000mag.net/email) and writes a daily Windows news and information newsletter called WinInfo Daily UPDATE (http://www.wininformant.com).
SuperSite for Windows is a Penton site, as is WinInformant, as is Connected Home Media, and Windows & .NET Magazine is a Penton publication.
So is Paul Thurrott a liar and a fraud, and a disgrace to journalism. Or does he really not know for whom he works. Please feel free to ask David Nussbaum.
Apple’s made huge inroads with their G3s, G4s, PowerBooks, TiBooks, iBooks, iPods, iTunes Music Store, etc. But they’re still a margin player, just like they were in 1998, just like they were in 1995. And it’s still because they’re stupidly interested in what’s cool, but not what’s profitable. People who buy Macs are essentially funding the R&D labs for Microsoft and all of the hardware manufacturers. Because whenever Apple does something cool, everybody steals it, and Apple limps along selling really cool stuff at really expensive prices to um, suckers like you
Blah
Whilst chumps like you complain that iLife and OSX don’t work on your computers. I know where I’d rather be.