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#26 2005-07-27 12:13 am
- Tom_N
- Member
- Registered: 2002-01-24
- Posts: 889
Re: FastCompany article on "doomed" iPod
The iPod, like most Apple products, is decidedly "closed." Your Yahoo music subscription won't work with your iPod because Apple does not support Microsoft's WMA file format.
No, it doesn't work with your iPod because Yahoo doesn't support the closest thing to a standard format: non-DRMed MP3.
The collective brought the shotgun approach and dozens of players and stores. The collective includes some of the biggest names in the world of music, entertainment, ones and zeroes: Microsoft, Yahoo, Sony to name a few.
Most or all of who have bought into DRM-world, and most or all of who have suffered for it. Some of whom think that a subscription where ALL of your music evaporates if you EVER stop subscribing (think of National Geographic sending people to take back old, paid-for issues) is an attractive "deal".
Last edited by Tom_N (2005-07-27 12:14 am)
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#27 2005-07-27 8:23 pm
- Czachorski
- Member
- Registered: 2002-12-20
- Posts: 5584
Re: FastCompany article on "doomed" iPod
after-life wrote:
This FUD is getting old. Even if Apple seriously drops the ball and its competitors get their act together, it's still going to be the dominant player in the digital music market for years to come. You don't go from 80% to "doomed" in a short time.
Precisely. People want to point to Apple's previous "doomed" status rolling off the Macintosh line and it's so-called-failure as a "closed" product and use that as proof that they must also be doomed now with the iPod. RIGHT - because music players are just like computers, and this market is just like that market, and the competition now is just like it was then, etc, etc. It is so flawed that it is not even funny. Not to mention, Apple never ever dominated the PC market with the Mac even close to the manner in which they are dominating the music market.
If they want to make the "closed" to "doomed" metaphor, they should consider that the biggest, baddest, "closed" system in the world, MS Windows, has done just fine dominating the market for operating systems without ever opening in the manner that this author suggests.
Tracking the Tech
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#28 2005-07-27 10:44 pm
- RipRagged
- Member
- From: Richland, WA
- Registered: 2003-03-14
- Posts: 121
Re: FastCompany article on "doomed" iPod
Apple has been doomed from the very beginning.
In the late 80's John Dvorak used to have a monthly column in MacUser, in which he predicted the end of Apple 12 times a year. Ever since Apple abandoned the Apple II, it's been a slippery slope down to the toilet of forgotten technology companies.
Any minute now, Apple will just cease to be. If they only had stuck with a proven technology there might be some hope for them.
Trizzle trazzle trozzle trone
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#29 2005-08-01 2:54 pm
Re: FastCompany article on "doomed" iPod
The column can be summed up in two points:
1. The iPod/iTMS does not play WMA, but everything else does. Therefore, the iPod is not "open," it will be beaten by the combined share of everything else, and unless Apple switches to WMA the iPod is doomed.
2. The convergence of music players, cell phones, digital cameras and what-have-you is the Next Big Thing, and anything out there that doesn't try to incorporate all that and little games together is doomed, regardless of if something built to do all those things ends up doing all of them equally poorly.
Last edited by JD MacMan (2005-08-01 2:58 pm)
If I knew what I was doing, I wouldn't be here.
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#30 2005-08-01 4:05 pm
- ckm
- f/k/a captkevman
- From: over here!
- Registered: 2001-03-13
- Posts: 6884
Re: FastCompany article on "doomed" iPod
Isn't DRM, by it's very definition, a "closed" format?
Isn't .mp3 an "open" format?
Can't ALL digital music players play .mp3s?
What's the problem?
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#31 2005-08-01 4:26 pm
- Zetetic Apparatchik
- Member
- Registered: 2001-01-07
- Posts: 8250
Re: FastCompany article on "doomed" iPod
CaptKevMan wrote:
Isn't DRM, by it's very definition, a "closed" format?
Isn't .mp3 an "open" format?
Can't ALL digital music players play .mp3s?
No. Some Sony ones can't.
Join the MAF AudioScrobbler group.
Protest ist, wenn ich sage, das und das paßt mir nicht. Widerstand ist, wenn ich dafür sorge, daß das, was mir nicht paßt, nicht länger geschieht.
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#32 2005-08-01 7:53 pm
- RipRagged
- Member
- From: Richland, WA
- Registered: 2003-03-14
- Posts: 121
Re: FastCompany article on "doomed" iPod
Let's say iPod and iTMS together hold roughly 80% of the music market, a lot like MS Windows owns 95% of OS Market.
It seems rather like lunatic ravings to paint Apple is doomed in the OS market, because 5% of the market is still a helluva pile of computers and software. To blather about Apple being doomed in the market it created from scratch, and almost entirely owns is beyond crazy.
It looks to me like there's room for plenty of healthy competition in the digital entertainment market. Apple will probably continue to lead the innovations.
Trizzle trazzle trozzle trone
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#33 2005-08-02 12:19 am
- Light Speed
- Doubter of Einstein
- Registered: 2002-08-17
- Posts: 3694
Re: FastCompany article on "doomed" iPod
Sometimes when something good gets big enough some people's only reaction is to try to poke holes in it. I guess it makes them feel productive.
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