“In spite of the massive success that Apple has enjoyed with its iPod line of portable music players, the company must still be feeling the pressure from the competition. Apple has filled a patent application on how future iPods will use wireless for electronic media purchasing online,” Susan J. Campbell writes for TMCnet.
Campbell writes, “This application filing occurs not too soon before the much-anticipated release of the Microsoft Zune. While this could be an effort to fight the software giant and its product directly, it should be noted that Zune’s built-in Wi-Fi will be limited to the file sharing between devices with no direct Internet purchases from the handheld.”
Campbell writes, “The events that have led to the filing of a patent application still remain unknown; however it should give an indication that Apple fears its dominance in the market is threatened. This is interesting given the reasons for the iPod’s success in the first place.”
Campbell writes, “Apple and its iPod didn’t earn its throne in the portable music player industry because it had the easiest to use player that offered the best song selection. This success also didn’t come because it offered the most competitive price. Apple has been able to dominate this market because of its marketing campaign, pure and simple.”
She keeps on writing in the full article here.
Can you believe these writers have what we assume are paying jobs? Apple has filed hundreds of iPod-related patents in order to protect their inventions, pure and simple. The “fear” is that some company will steal your invention. Obviously. Apple has filed so many wireless-related iPod patent application, that we don’t even know precisely which one Campbell is referencing (she does not provide a patent number or link). We assume Campbell’s talking about this iPod patent application. And, in order to have fear of the competition, it would be helpful to first have some credible competition to fear, Susan. We’re not going to bother recounting why iPod is successful, but its marketing, while formidable, is certainly and obviously not the only reason. TGIF.
Related articles: Search for “patent” at the bottom of any MacDailyNews page to see articles about iPod and other patents.
Is the washing up done yet?
Dumb broad.
What a Duh title. Can you think of any other possible reason to file a patent, besides fear of competition?
As if this is a negative thing. As Andy Grove said, only the paranoid survive. You don’t win in business by forgetting to fear competition.
This patent was filed on June 25th and just made public.
Corretction.. The patent was filed on June 23rd 2006. I believe that was before news of the Zune surfaced
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2177
Apple did not only succeed because of a good ad campaign. If they had a great ad campaign, but a poor product, word would have spread and the iPod would not be holding 70%+ of the market today. The advertising was good, but the product was great. It was (and still is) far superior to everything else out there.
What ever happened to the patent for the ipod to share music. I remember seeing it a year or so ago that had someone that looked like they were on a ski slope and they had a ipod that was beaming its music to the other ipods. What comes of that patent. Will they get to sue Microsoft for it I wonder?
At work we examine everything we do looking for patentable elements. That’s just good business practice. Not FEAR!
PLEASE WRITE TO HER
susan.campbell@sbcglobal.net
…let her know that Apple filed this patent on June 23, 2006, which was several weeks before news of Zune and it’s wifi capabilities were ever announced.
The patent just became public this week, however, the filing date is clearly marked on the patent application..
OK, guys, I have a theory. And it goes like this…
Too many writers/IQ+not enough stories-facts=Zune
I used the accepted metaphor in the conclusion because I don’t like to say shit.
Also, I was gonna give her a clue, but after seeing her picture I became clueless…
Read the article, looked at her site.
No technology background, just looking for work. 🙁
She said “Apple and its iPod didn’t earn its throne in the portable music player industry because it had the easiest to use player that offered the best song selection…. Apple has been able to dominate this market because of its marketing campaign, pure and simple.”
My guess is that she does not have the technical capacity to use an iPod. LOL Goofball!!
“The company was able to strategically position its product in all the right places so that the iPod was the portable player of choice for the rich and famous…..”
iPods cost less than some running shoes. Again she punts on the 3 yard line.
“Apple did borrow a winning strategy from Microsoft (News – Alert) in keeping its technology proprietary. However, this strategy doesn’t seem to be enough to keep the fruity giant on top as consumers are beginning to tire of the iPod and iTunes restrictions.”
As I recall, MS changed and started using Apples idea of integrating services. 3 for 3, and she’s out of here.
N.
I wonder… is it the high school career counselors or the college entrance advisors that are leading all stupid ones by the hand down to the School of Journalism?
She’s a really good argument for keeping them barefoot and preganant in the kitchen, plus not letting them vote.
MDN TGIF… you got that right. I think Susan is in denial and she is drowning in it.
Hey Oops,
Compared with your comment she looks like Einstein. Crawl back into your cave.
As was expected S. Campbell’s bio is filled with generalities, nonspecific statements, and a list that describes an unimpressive history of professional expertise.
How can one author be so wrong on so much in just one article. Staggering. Someone should tell her that if you’re going to do a hit piece on a product, you need to be more subtle to maintain a modicum of verisimilitude.
Secondly…. Most successful companies have one general trait: They are ALWAYS afraid. Afraid of competition. Afraid that they are working fast or smart enough. Afraid of dissappointing customers and investors. It’s the fear that keeps them sharp and makes them successful. We all know that his Steveness never is content that an Apple product is “good-enough”.
Oops, what exactly is “preganant”?
All this patent filing is at least partially due to lawsuits related to ridiculous patents that were issued by the U.S. Patent Office. We have to get away from patents on one-click purchasing (it’s called a sequence of events related to an action and some stored user data) and a hierarchical menu system for viewing and selecting music on a computer or portable electronic device (it’s called a menu, been around for years).
The defense against this patent cr@p is apparently to file your own patent cr@p.
“Preganant” n. a pregnant revenant, aka a zombie bride, or, alternately, in this quasi-post-feminist era, a zombie single mother.
What a silly twit!
She gets spondulicks for this diarrhoea?
Take a logic course, lady. What a heapin’ load of non-sequiturs.
Madam,
you’re a fool!
Hey, I live in a cave. But it has a large entrance, so I don’t have to crawl. But my knuckles still drag the ground, darn it.
Jerkstore,
I take it that yer 1 of thoze idiuts that will seize on what iz an obveeus typo as if that’s actually a meaninfull point. Therefore, I am hapully provdin u wit sum more devestatinly effectiv ammo. Hav funn, genus!
But the rest of you pussy whipped mo fo’s are on your own.
As for the author of this piece, I hope for her sake that she’s hot. Otherwise, there is no good reason that would justify her existence.
TGIF ?
what does that stand for?
aah, now I know:
Toes
Go
In
First
she´s blonde, right?
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
The writer should patent her brain so no asshole can steal it!!
Off topic but where’s Ampar? Haven’t seen him in days.
Sloppy or misleading edit by MDN. Full headline of linked article is:
Apple Files iPod Patent: Fear of Competition or Exposure? (bold lettering added by me)
MDN, you can do better! We count on you to counter the FUD, not create more of it!
BTW, she’s a redhead.
CAMPBELL’S WRITINGS ARE INANE. Congress established the patent system in 1789 to encourage companies to invest in innovation. R&D is expensive and it makes little business sense to invest new and better products for the consumer if a competitor comes can just sit back, let you do all the hard work, and simply copy what you did four months later for pennies on the dollar.
What is Congress’ reward to companies that obtain patents(?): roughly 18 years of exclusivity for making that investment.
The leadership of a company would literally be in breach of their fiduciary responsibilities to their shareholders if they didn’t secure as many of their inventions as they could with patents.
Campbell’s argument is that people buy iPods because slick marketing makes them do so even though there are more compelling alternatives. The obvious implication of her argument is that she is—somehow—some kind of “expert” that can see past the fluff of the iPod and that millions of users are so stupid that they have been buffaloed into buying iPods only because it’s the “cool thing” to do.
I prefer to believe that Apple’s customers are smarter than Campbell.
*I wrote that?* Try #2:
CAMPBELL’S WRITINGS ARE INANE. Congress established the patent system in 1789 to encourage companies to invest in innovation. R&D is expensive. It makes little business sense to invest in new and better products for the consumer if a competitor can just sit back, let you do all the hard work, and simply copy what you did only four months later for pennies on the dollar.
What is Congress’ reward to companies that obtain patents(?): roughly 18 years of exclusivity for making that investment.
The leadership of a company would literally be in breach of their fiduciary responsibilities to their shareholders if they didn’t secure as many of their inventions as they could with patents.
Campbell’s argument is that people buy iPods because slick marketing makes them do so even though there are more compelling alternatives. The obvious implication of her argument is that she is—somehow—some kind of “expert” that can see past the fluff of the iPod and that millions of users are so stupid that they have been buffaloed into buying iPods only because it’s the “cool thing” to do.
I prefer to believe that Apple’s customers are smarter than Campbell.
Her photo is ok, it was more her
” fifteen years in the sales field. Her sales activity included consumer and business-to-business selling. She holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a marketing emphasis from Missouri Western State University.”
that fails to mention any sort of technology experience that is more of an issue for an article like that.
Her web page
http://www.susanjcampbell.com/about.html
Alternative contact address
susan.campbell@sbcglobal.net
That was just plain stupid. What an inane article.
Looking at her recent articles after reading her bio, I noticed she is a copywriter. She writes the text in advertisments, Product manuals, etc.
There is nothing in there that points to her having any understanding of the iPod market, Apple or the MP3 player market.
Think of a newspaper editor flinging open his office door and yelling “Copy” and having an entry level employee run up to get his assignment.
mw: try as in nice try attempting to add meaningful input to the debate.
If all it takes to make a successful MP3 players is an awesome ad compaign, then Zune will be a HUGE success!
We’ll see. I just love it when morons are proved wrong!
What is it with these writers using “much anticipated”??? By whom exactly? Microsoft employees???
Headline:
Ferrari terrified of Kia Rio. Plans new car!
Apple has filled a patent application on how future iPods will use wireless for electronic media purchasing online
Yea, they better. Microsoft was about to pull a fast one.
This application filing occurs not too soon before the much-anticipated release of the Microsoft Zune. While this could be an effort to fight the software giant and its product directly, it should be noted that Zune’s built-in Wi-Fi will be limited to the file sharing between devices with no direct Internet purchases from the handheld.
And how long is that supposed to last? Until the next Zune OS update?
Apple was smart to read the cards and connect the dots the Zune hardware and OS interface was potentially capable of doing.
Something is missing with the Zune, perhaps a Wifi/DSL connection to the M$ Music Store.
She was in Sales for 15 years AND has a B.S. degree – isn’t that redundant?
‘nough said
Tango,
Where do you work?
This is off-topic, but doesn’t it seem kind of weird that there’s a MS advertisement on this page? It’s just to the right of this box I’m typing in and I can’t imagine why it would be on a site such as this.
“…Apple has been able to dominate this market because of its marketing campaign, pure and simple.”
No…pure and simple.
Apple can’t (and has never been able to) market their way out of a paper bag.
Sure the iPod commercials are flashy, hip, trendy, slick, etc., etc., but anyone who bought an iPod because of them has to be an idiot.
The iPod commercials (and Mac, which are in no way flashy, hip, trendy, slick, etc., etc.) are about building and increasing “brand awareness,” not about convincing someone to buy. A potential customer has to do that themselves.
How come MDN hasn’t reported on my cracking the iTunes monopoly code? Finding it difficult to find a good spin?
As if Apple was incapable of thinking of wireless capability for iPod, before Zune was anounced.
I would like to know her shoe size, just to see how close she can get to the kitchen sink. Read the book: What do WO-man want?
HAD to write this woman in the articles “Talk Back” section. Wrote:
_
Author stated: “Apple and its iPod didn’t earn its throne in the portable music player industry because it had the easiest to use player that offered the best song selection.”
Did you seriously mean to say “didn’t earn” or was that a typo? That is the craziest statement I’ve heard from a writer. EVERYTHING Apple designs is easier to use than anything else out there. The Operating System, the iPods their AirPort wireless base stations, Apple’s software. Apple is all about ease of use since it’s inception in the 1980’s many years before Microsoft copied with Windows. I think ease of use is at the TOP of the list for most iPod users I know. Have YOU ever used one? Our 10 year old uses his easily. He also is skilled in PC and Mac. He MUCH prefers the Mac.
–
High School Counselor: “Susan, I know you love to write all kinds of stories, but there isn’t a lot of money out there for fiction book writers these days, I mean who reads books anymore. I suggest you go into journalism. There are many of those fields with new ones opening up, like the big technology field that’s always expanding.”
And the rest is history.
How to become an analyst.
1) Write an article attacking an Apple product.
2) Based on the traffic from mac zealots, show how popular you are.
3) Get a job. :rolleyes:
This is what I wrote to Susan Campbell:
First, I assume that writing articles like “Apple Files iPod Patent: Fear of Competition or Exposure?” isn’t your day job. Secondly, it’s obvious that you have a PC sitting on your desk and have never had the “Mac” experience, otherwise you would never write a naive and uninformed article like this. Thirdly, you probably own an iPod, but but have bought “other” ear buds to conceal it.
All companies feel the competitive pressure of protecting their products and Apple is certainly one of them, but to say that the success of the iPod is because of its marketing is an insult to the consumer. The public is much more sophisticated than that. Yes, consumers buy products because marketing makes them aware of the products, but sustained success comes from a product that is indeed easy to use, offers selection and is affordably priced.
“the iPod was the portable player of choice for the rich and famous” ? AND “our quest to be like the rich and famous” ? Absurd. “The fruity giant” has sold 70 million iPods because it’s a useful product of high quality at a good price that consumers are NOT anywhere close to tiring of. Picture it…70 million people running around with an iPod all saying, “hey look, I’m just like the rich and famous”…ridiculous.
Maybe you should consider going into politics…running a smear campaign for one of our “fruity” congressmen.
I think that with the responses that Susan will get from the readers of her article, the Mac faithfull will have kept their reputation. Even if her assumptions were completely wrong in the first place.
Susan Campbell is pissed because her patent filing on stupidity proved too late. Bob Enderle and I are battling it out in court, but I’ll win because I’m a lawyer. There’s no room for her. I won’t share my stupidity with anyone. She’ll have to pay for a license, like everyone else.
If anyone says I’m too smart to misspell my own name, I’ll sue you, too!