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Jobs' Invitation To Microsoft a Trap?
An anonymous reader writes "Chris Seibold over at Apple Matters, has written up an interesting analysis on Steve Jobs' suggestion that Microsoft make their own mp3 player. He argues that it is more bait than business plan, a deft move by Steve Jobs to lure Microsoft into a can't-win war. The key, according to the article, is the licensing of FairPlay." From the article: "The folks who stick with Microsoft get to fight over, roughly, twenty percent of the market. The folks that go with Apple would be aligning themselves with what has become the industry standard. The players that license FairPlay would have access to the iTunes store, backwards compatibility with the songs consumers have already purchased, and a chance to compete on a perfectly level playing field with the iPod. It doesn't take a Stanford MBA to deduce that the potential rewards of opting to use FairPlay far outstrip the rewards of going with PlaysForSure."
It does. WPM 10 has native music store support, backed with PlaysForSure and the Janus DRM system.
Luckily, the interface seems like it was designed by monkeys on crack and nobody in their right mind wants to use it.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
When you use iTunes software to rip your CD collection to MP3 or M4A for use with your iPod player, the ripped files do not have any form of digital restrictions management. It's extremely common in the United States and Canada for somebody to own 28 hours worth of CDs, which is enough to fill a 2 GB player at 160 kbps.
How is one company's CEO suggesting another company can't win unless they adopt their approach a "bad" thing? What is monopolistic about it? In fact, isn't suggesting someone else offer a product kinda, well, anti-monopolistic?
You can freely buy a competing MP3 player. If Apple was, say, strong-arming retail stores into only selling iPods the way Microsoft forced Windows onto OEMs, THEN get back to me with the "evil monopoly" talk. Until then, whatevah.
"Sufferin' succotash."