“Forrester has to be having a fun week hearing from the Apple fans after it announced that iTunes music sales had ‘collapsed,’ dropping 65 percent. Apple makes little or no money on iTunes music, but this music forms a switching cost barrier that prevents other MP3 products from cannibalizing existing Apple customers,” Rob Enderle writes for TechNewsWorld.
Enderle writes, “In short, if you want to switch, you have to kiss off all your purchased tunes and then buy them again from someone else.”
“If fewer and fewer people buy music this way, this barrier gets weaker over time. That could be problematic for Apple, which is facing ever more-focused competitors,” Enderle writes. “Personally, I think this simply means that folks are realizing what a rip-off DRM (digital rights management)-protected downloaded music is, and they are going back to CDs so they can do what they want with the music they purchase.”
Full article here.
Rob Enderle is a moron. It’s not “Apple fans” that are chastising Forrester, it’s everyone from Main Street to Wall Street with at least half a brain. Of course, that excludes you, Rob. That cheesily-mustachioed empty vessel atop your shoulders is totally useless. Still, try to keep up, Rob: iTunes Store music sales are surging, not “collapsing.” comScore shows surging Apple iTunes sales, with revenue growing 84% during first 3 quarters of 2006. Even Forrester ate their crow and has since proclaimed, “iTunes sales are NOT plummeting!”
Burn your iTunes Store-purchased songs to a CD and take them anywhere, Rob. How many times do we have to tell you before it sinks in, stupid? Oh, right, empty vessel. Sorry. And, if you don’t like DRM, blame the music labels, not Apple.
In short: Rob Enderle thinks iTunes Store sales are collapsing when they are actually surging and then makes up a typically meaningless and unfounded explanation for why something is happening when it isn’t. Great work as usual, you moron.
Related articles:
comScore: Apple iTunes sales are surging; revenue grew 84% during first 3 quarters of 2006 – December 14, 2006
Apple Computer shares rise on target price increase, positive iTunes sales forecast – December 13, 2006
Forrester’s Bernoff: ‘iTunes sales are NOT plummeting! Press credibility, on the other hand…’ – December 13, 2006
Jim Cramer on Apple iTunes Store and ‘that stupid Forrester survey’ – December 13, 2006
Piper Jaffray: Apple iTunes Store sales show strong year-over-year growth – December 13, 2006
Morgan Stanley ups Apple Computer price target to $110 – December 13, 2006
Apple on Forrester report: ‘the conclusion that iTunes sales are slowing is simply incorrect’ – December 12, 2006
Blackfriars’ does the math: Apple iTunes sales are not ‘collapsing’ – December 12, 2006
iTunes interest climbs as one analyst claims falling sales – December 12, 2006
Akamai Net Usage Index for Digital Music measures real-time global consumption of online music – December 11, 2006
WSJ mistake: ‘digital-music sales have stalled for the first time since Apple launched iTunes Store’ – December 06, 2006
Digital downloads drive world music sales in first half of 2006 – October 13, 2006
Study reports the obvious: most music on iPods not from iTunes Store – September 17, 2006
Apple iTunes Gift Cards help boost growth of digital music in U.S. – April 21, 2006
Enderle: Microsoft’s Zune could be very successful – November 07, 2006
Enderle FUD Alert: Apple MacBook firmware steps down processor to stop random shutdowns – October 27, 2006
Enderle: ‘4th quarter will be Apple’s hardest since the first iPod Christmas’ – September 18, 2006
Enderle spouts some incredible nonsense about Apple iPod+iTunes – July 07, 2006
Enderle: If Apple can’t double market share it will abandon Macs – May 02, 2006
Big surprise: Enderle was wrong about Apple’s holiday quarter Mac sales – January 19, 2006
Tech pundit Enderle: ‘Microsoft wrote the first Mac OS’ – September 28, 2005
Tech Pundit Enderle: ‘fourth quarter should be ugly for Apple’ – August 09, 2005
Enderle: ‘Surveys indicate demand for Apple’s products is dropping like a rock’ due to Intel switch – August 01, 2005
Tech Pundit Enderle: ‘This year will be more difficult for Apple Computer’ and iMacs in earthquakes – January 24, 2005
The Fudmeister strikes again.
I hope Enderle dies with a brain tumor.
It’s only a matter of time before people ditch the failure that is the iPod and adopt the wave of the future: The Zune.
Once that happens, iTunes music sales will finally halt for good.
Welcome to the social.
Sadistic MF,
No chance, he’d actually have to have a brain in order to get a tumor.
that would be hard to do!
Poor Rob hasn’t been the same ever since an iMac fell on his head during an earthquake. I’m afraid to even ask if his “ever more-focused competitors” comment is a reference to Zune.
Discussion question: Is Rob’s impressive acumen by any chance the product of the Chicago public school system?
Remember this. He makes a good living promoting MS and belittling Apple. He’s very good at it.
He writes with clarity and conviction. People appreciate reading his pronouncements. Who cares about facts?
As our president would say…
Don’t ‘misunderestimate’ Ron Enderle. He is the gold std of MS consultants.
I prefer higher quality DRM-less music, and since my genre of choice isn’t well represented on ITS anyway – techno, I purchase either CDs or from beatport.com – full resolution WAV files.
Wow, MDN, no holds barred, eh?
You’re raking the poor guy over the coals, and he’s probably enjoying it.
Maybe he was referring to the stock price collapse: which it has.
I have an iPod. I have vinyl records. I have CDs. I’ve purchased from iTunes. I like music. I don’t feel trapped, Rob. In fact, I’m grateful that Apple has created such great hardware and software. It has created an even better overall music experience for me than ever before, Rob. iPod and iTunes has been more liberating than any of the hardware I’ve owned in the past, Rob. The DRM hasn’t made me feel entrapped.
I’m sorry, Rob, that whatever it is that’s stuck so far up your ass has caused you so much pain.
Has anyone else noticed all the talking points lately? Specifically, “DRM bad!” And that it’s coming (read: being funded) by M$lop? These guys can’t win on the merit of anything they do, so they hit below the belt.
Actually, they probably do that to see what real balls actually feel like, but that’s a different story…
MDN “feeling” as in Balls.
Enderle is either a moron (good evidence of that) or a troll (good evidence there too) or both (likely correct). He writes such ridiculous and absurd articles to get his name in the public and get people and Web sites (like MDN) talking about him and hitting his stories. Then he looks popular. Gee look, all the people reading his stories. He looks influential in the IT industry. It all works to his advantage. If you really want to shut him up (please!) – quit paying any attention to him. MDN, do us a favor and don’t pick up ANYTHING this guy writes.
Must be tough for them to have to keep on finding ways to deny Apples success, if only for a day or two before the truth outs again.
When I read this I was inclined to think that Enderle is a man who has his head stuffed well and truly up the arse of Ballmer/Gates/Microsoft – take your pick.
It’s funny, but I can’t ever recall Enderle criticising DRM protection when he was being a shill for the Microsoft’s Plays For Sure “partners” in opposition to Apple’s FairPlay.
If I were crazy enough to want to migrate from the iPod platform, nearly all of my library – in AAC format – could be converted to ‘standard’ MP3 format in a weekend; furthermore, if I had any iTS content (I don’t as I prefer to chose my own bitrate), I could convert it by simply burning re-writable CDs and re-ripping the result.
But what would be my choices if I had paid a PlayedForSure “partner” to “rent” my music and that service had collapsed?
I would call Enderle an asshat, but it is becoming ever more obvious that even that represents an aspirational goal for Rob.
http://twiki.iwethey.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/EnderleFlackLetter
Here is the Enderle Flack leter Linux guys use to email editors with complaints.
I wish this guy calling himself Zune Tang would quit posting as me. I am the real Zune Tang. Fake Zune Tang, no social for you!
To call Enderle an asshat is to insult asshats worldwide.
People, simply ignore this sad sack and he will wither and die.
I ❤ Asshats.
such articulate bashing of Enderle, no need to go to his website.
iTunes is nice and easy for the unintiatied, but for people in the know, rip and burn is the only way to go.
Podcasts for me, tech and political stuff, like Leo and Amber, and Wake Up AM, free and easy.
are the anal-lists taking into account iTunes gift cards?
Seems the ‘fake’ Zune Tang is still around and posting the usual FUD.
For the legit Zune Tang, could you post your side of all things mp3 or mp4 player?
I wonder if the ‘fake’ Zune Tang is Rob Enderle’s boyfriend? Like all fags anything resembling the male asshole is of great interest to them, so that is why the Zune looks like a turd and plays like a turd.
Yes welcome to the social where I can make my own CD’s to share tunes with my friends they can keep for far longer than 3 days and even more plays than just the 3!
I can share my music as well via iTunes’ iMix feature so that people I do not know can buy the same music and perhaps find something they never knew they liked.
Apple keeps going from strength to strength and the figures prove it despite Windows users denial in order to hide in their own ineptitude social and professionally.
The problem with Enderle is that he is often quoted as an expert in computer technology. I lost a lot of respect for public radio when they quoted him recently. Despite his talent for consistently getting his facts almost completely wrong, there are plenty of “journalists” who make a bee-line for Enderle whenever they need some tech expertise.
I don’t know if he is on the M$ payroll or not. But he is right that Apple doesn’t make much off of iTunes. Yet. What he and others fail to acknowledge is that ITMS is a very young service and has plenty of room, and momentum, to grow.
ITMS has the potential for a paradigm shift and, after a few more years, could replace cable and broadcast television for supplying content. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that ITMS could eventually supply all our audio/video media needs. It’s obvious why the current big-wigs are so frightened of Apple’s power – they don’t want to lose their sugar-teats to Steve Jobs.
In the mean time Enderle is just another pundit with an agenda. It may be deliberate or just ignorance talking – but he is listened to.
Enderle is maintaining his usual standard of analysis. Does he actually get paid for this??
MW: couldnt
Hi MacJammer. I’m one of those fags you refer to. I guess now I know why your face is so appealing to me.