The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference got underway Sunday night with Apple CEO Steve Jobs giving a sneak preview of a forthcoming version of iTunes, the software for buying and managing digital-music files, that could boost the popularity of podcasting. (See related articles below).
“Addressing a range of other Apple-related issues in a give-and-take with Wall Street Journal columnists and conference hosts Walter S. Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Mr. Jobs expressed doubt about the prospect of cellphone-service providers making substantial inroads into Apple’s dominant market share of digital-music players. Mr. Jobs said downloading music from cellphone-service providers would be ‘a lousy buying experience’ likely to be two or three times as expensive as Apple’s 99-cent downloads, adding that ‘it’s hard to see their customers as that stupid,'” Jason Fry reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“Mr. Jobs also cast doubt on Yahoo Inc.’s announcement of a $60-per-year music subscription plan, saying that price point was ‘substantially’ below Yahoo’s costs and would be raised. Mr. Jobs then claimed Apple employees had a betting pool on when Yahoo would raise the $5-a-month rate, with Mr. Jobs putting his money on five months,” Fry reports.
“Mr. Jobs proclaimed himself a solid believer in the ‘halo effect’ of iPod sales fueling Mac sales, pointing to strong growth in recent quarters. Asked when Apple would reach a 10% market share – up from the low single digits — he said he didn’t know. But he added that ‘it’s possible … if people learn about our products, many of them choose them,'” Fry reports.
“On the subject of viruses and security holes in the Mac operating system, Mr. Jobs refused to crow about Apple’s lack of incidents in comparison with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system, noting that since all PC makers face the security challenge, machines shouldn’t be marketed that way. ‘One thing you never want to do in dealing with security and viruses is be cavalier,’ he said,” Fry reports. “Mr. Jobs was mindful of the presence in the audience of his longtime rival, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. At one point, he polled the audience to see how many had iPods. Seeing quite a bit of upraised hands, he peered into the crowd and asked, ‘Bill, do you have your hand up?'”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple CEO Steve Jobs demos iTunes 4.9, due within 60 days, includes podcast support – May 23, 2005
Apple CEO Steve Jobs to speak at Wall Street Journal’s ‘D3: All Things Digital’ conference next week – May 16, 2005