Friday, May 6, 2005
Cloning iPods? Cringely Thinks So
Posted by Jason Dunn in "ARTICLE" @ 01:46 PM
"Apple's own downward price pressure on portable media players gives us another element of the probable iPod strategy that hearkens back to my question of a few weeks ago whether iPod is the razor or the blade. Ultimately, what Apple wants to do is make its money through iTunes, where the profit margins are better in the long term and the system is easily scalable. It was necessary to create the iPod platform to make this happen. But downward price pressures will eventually hurt iPod profit margins and affect Apple's stock price, so the trick is to know when to switch the business from being a mix of hardware and software to one that is software-only. That switch, which I believe to be inevitable, will happen shortly after Apple begins to license iPod clones. But Steve Jobs HATES clones, doesn't he? He killed the Mac clones back in the late 90s."
The bulk of the column is about DayJet, but the interesting digital-media related content comes at the end where Cringely takes a stab at what Apple is going to do next. And I have to admit that I think he's right - if Jobs can swallow his own ego and make the transition possible. Give the column a read and tell me what you think will happen in the next year or two...
The bulk of the column is about DayJet, but the interesting digital-media related content comes at the end where Cringely takes a stab at what Apple is going to do next. And I have to admit that I think he's right - if Jobs can swallow his own ego and make the transition possible. Give the column a read and tell me what you think will happen in the next year or two...
