“That raises some interesting questions about what the future of the company might be, because focusing on the cloud means realizing that business is beyond proprietary hardware and software. And the answer may be a clever marriage of open and closed, promoting Apple hardware and eventually making it king of the personal computer heap,” Sherman writes.
“Why Apple might want a streaming company is head-scratching, in an odd kind of way” Sherman writes. “It should be crystal clear. An important business to them is selling access to downloading songs. Streaming media is a natural counterpoint, because there will be people who want the equivalent of a radio station, with a larger variety of music than the typical collection, and streaming should also lead to additional track sales. And if you can stream audio, why not video or e-books or any kind of media?”
Sherman writes, “This would also seem to logically tie to the big server farm that Apple is building in North Carolina… [Then] last month, we saw that Apple filed a patent on a way to force people to watch ads and which could be used to let a user obtain ‘a good or service, such as the operating system, for free or at reduced cost.'”
“Time to tie it all together,” Sherman writes. “You have streaming media, enforced ad-watching, and rumors of the new cheaper device coming out. So add it all up. How about advertising-supported streamed media that also ties in to subsidized hardware? And don’t assume that the media is just music.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Back to its rightful owner.
Apple leaves EVERYONE scratching their heads until people catch on to what they’re doing. Then it’s imitation city.
People can keep talking about cloud this and cloud that but in the end without a device to access all this data, what’s the point of having a cloud?
Incredibly, the very private plans that Apple have to roll out over the next two or three years, or even further in the future, can’t even be in the dreams of their competitors…
‘Take back’?
How can you take back what was never yours in the first place? I’m tired of MAC lemmings trying to rewrite history. It’s getting ridiculous—and more than a little embarrassing—with MAC’s copycat Zunes and wannabe Windows toy computers. Do you MAC sheep have any shame?
Your potential. Our passion.™
Zune Tang: “with MAC’s copycat Zunes and wannabe Windows toy computers. Do you MAC sheep have any shame?”
Haha, good one. I like the way you turned it around there, that’s what makes it funny.
Did I ruin the joke? Sorry, I tend to do that.
Zune tang, I love you
Must be a slow tech time of the year. Where this article goes astray (and I hope this isn’t just wishful thinking on my part) is in the whole ad-supported everything angle. Seems to me Apple’s history is decidedly “anti-ad”, at least when it comes to services. When I say “anti-ad” I mean Apple doesn’t advertise anything but itself and it’s business. For example, even when .Mac was free, you didn’t see ads like you do with Yahoo mail, Hotmail, etc. Apple’s movie trailers website contains lots of trailer for films, but no blatant ads. They only have ads for things they sell (or are going to sell). That’s one reason I’m a MacHead. My MobileMe Gallery sells….me. When I have to do mail on a browser, I don’t have to see ads for car insurance, pharmaceuticals, etc. Being able to pay a little more for an “ad free” existence (alright, that’s not possible – an “ad-reduced” existence) is important to me. Hope Apple can stay that way.
FINALLY, someone remembered that Apple is building a 1 BILLION dollar server farm in the Carolina’s!
CONGRATULATIONS you are now starting to look at the tea leaves.
So, are they dumping AAPL stock or just forcing the price down some to buy in cheep. Apple is the top dollar trading stock today. I wish the SEC really understood what the big boys are doing here with AAPL.
It is insane to have Mac at home.
I have one in home and it performs beautifully, flawless, no crashing, no restarting, fast, easy, no re installs, no virus, no sywares, etc,
Once you go to work and star using a crappy Dell computer with windows OS, everything seems so frustrating. It stops responding for short period of time, but very often. It has to be re formatted every 6 months or less or you can just accept the fact that you have to work very slow and many components won’t work either. The new windows does not crash so often like older versions, but some programs or drives stops responding and you will have to restart the computer if you want them back.
Well, if you avoid using a mac, you became used to all those windows flaws and you get to be conformist. Your standard for quality will be so low that any piece of crap will be more than enough for you. You won’t look for BMW or lexus, a yugo or saturn will be a great car for you. You don’t have to buy a iMac, an Netbook computer will be your work station (even if you can’t even install your programs or get it to run).
Like Lauren (from Laptop hunter) you will search your food in the trash because you will not be so cool to buy it in walmart.
So just avoid apple products.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> (sarcasm)
Zune Tang makes flamebaiting fun again!
The Apple server farm in North Carolina is the only one we know about.I bet they also are building one on the west coast, one or two for Europe/ Africa, one for middle and one for South America, I think they are also building one in India.
No one knows what Apple is up to or what they are doing and planning.
The Lala purchase doesn’t say anything about what Apple’s plans are in the near or long term. Apple could have bought Lala for any of tens of thousands of reasons. Maybe even more then one.
The Analyst and Puckers will all write smelly hit whoring pieces on why Apple bought Lala and what they plan to do with it. At this point only Apple’s top brass knockers knows why they purchased Lala. The Lala purchase does say one thing about Apple that the Analyst and Puckered Punters have all over looked, and that is the Lala Purchase shows that Apple and it’s top Brass have some big stones even if the Lala service is killed off by Apple and nothing appears to be done with the Lala IP.
Inside every PC is a MAC (address, that is).
@Zune Tang
iPod= crappy
Zune=Good
OSX= crappy
Windows=good
Do you MAC sheep have any shame?
Fer chrissakes ZT please get something, anything original if you are going to continue to bore us on here
For you other ZT lovers, you guys must have alzheimer’s and love to hear the same joke over and over and over again.
just sayin’
How does this relate to an Itunes subscription service? $30/mth could include streaming music, sport (live), news(live). Maybe free if ad supported.
Agree with peteyz. One of the best things about the Mac and Mac/Apple software is the lack of ads. If I didn’t mind getting interrupted or distracted all the time by ads, I would use Google services and software. Hope Apple doesn’t lose sight of what sets them apart.
“And don’t assume that the media is just music.”
The most important statement in the whole article.
Lol just have a look at Zune tangs twitter page its a joke!!!!!
lol very pink mate, bet you dress in ladies clothes and call your self julie at the weekends.
an apple device with forced streaming adds?
COUNT ME OUT STEVE.. SORRY BUDDY.
How can Steve Jobs and his little company aka. CRAPple take back the PC business if they have lost to Microsoft many years ago with MAC copying Windows. History will repeat itself and Microsoft will do it again in the mobile with WinMo7.
http://www.bing.com When it comes to decisions that matter, Bing & Decide
Where Larry failed with the NIC, maybe Steve looks to succeed with the Tablet?
http://tinyurl.com/37tntw
But they might all be ads for Apple products or featured media….
Then would you watch them?
“…But could Apple have finally found the formula to become the leading seller of a computing device, in profitability as well as in unit shipment, and undermine the entire Microsoft universe?…”
Is revenge a dish best served cold?
Jersey_Trader:
You got that right – Any ideas on how do you get through to the SEC?
I hope there would be an add free component.
Pay a subscription fee or pay as you go for no ads, or unlimited for free but the price is you have to watch the ads. Either way the piper is paid.