[clue-talk] iPhone Madness

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 07-03 02:18, Nate Duehr wrote:
 
> Nah, Apple's genius was in making the iPod connector proprietary, and  
> then grabbing enough market share that even automotive manufacturers  
> put them in vehicles.  The other manufacturers can only hook up  
> through a dumb, no-data, "aux" jack for audio to things like cars.   
> Keeping the iPod connector backward compatible throughout multiple  
> versions of the product was a great idea.

Yeah, the fellow I was talking to was quite different - you are making
rational arguments with facts involved. His reaction bordered more on
someone trying to defend their religion - he was perceiving it more as a
personal attack on him for me to even make the suggestion.

I still contend that it's possible for MS to eat iTunes/iPod's lunch.

1. Wal-Mart. Wal-mart demonstrates that there are an awful lot of people
that like to get junk for low prices. I think ipod will no doubt have a
place in the market, but it might have to appeal to the same crown that OS X
does, which is what, about 9% of desktops. 

2. Bundling. I've seen it argued that what Apple has actually made is a
multi-layered platform - ipod->itunes->istore, and there is truth to that.
But, MS can bundle their version of itunes into their OS. As long as it's
not irritating, they would already have one component of that tier. They
already have a store, IIRC, and I suppose they could even talk some OEMs
into bundling some low-end version of whatever comes after Zune. 

3. Never underestimate MS. They may be thought of as a dinosaur what with
"the Google" and all, but I still think they have some fight in them. Sony
is hurting right now from the PS3, but I wouldn't count them out, either.
This is the company that did the same for portable tape players.

One counter-argument is branding. I suspect many people that buy ipod have
awareness of the ipod brand than even Apple itself, much like Java is better
known than Sun. So they gave the market a better name than the very non-sexy
term "portable mp3 player", and it had such force that it even generated the
misnomer "podcast". 

Another is lock-in. If you ripped all your CDs to AAC and bought stuff on
iTunes, then you're not likely to switch.  

I would say that neither of those two counter arguments are because
istore/itunes/ipods are a superior experience for users, though. It's hard
to say which will have the most force - but Nike has proven branding can be
done for years. 

It will be interesting to see how it plays out with the mp3 player market,
as well as the smartphone. I guess more competition is good, even if phones
are still locked down to a great extent in at least the U.S.

The idea behind the open source phone [TuxPhone]is interesting, but I have
to say that the pictures don't seem too enticing...but I applaud them
anyway.

http://www.opencellphone.org/index.php?title=Main_Page 

-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at comcast.net  
http://sean-leblanc.blogspot.com/
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a 
manner that when you die the world cries and you rejoice. 
-old Indian saying