Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Michael Gartenberg on Apple's Stranglehold on Digital Music
Posted by James Fee in "ARTICLE" @ 12:00 PM
"Music is important but overall, owning the dominant position for music and portable media devices leads to other things. This is why Microsoft needs to be concerned. How bad is it? Well, as we expected, the iPod is having a runaway start to the holiday season. I haven't seen one report, one commentary that even mentions ANY other device. Imagine Apple launches some new stuff with a strong push in 06 (Apple wisely ignores the noise of CES and prefers to wait until the following week for Macworld. They get the stage all to themselves and get to see everyone else's hand a week before). Now we move to more quarters into 06. We're beyond the point of mainstream adopters. It's now mass market for the iPod. I'm not suggesting it's game over. But I will say, it's hard to see how anyone can pull the market away from them."
There were media players before the iPod came along. Names like Rio were synonymous with mp3 players. The big question is WHEN Apple moves into the "media center" market, will the same thing happen to Microsoft and MCE? The XBox 360 shows Microsoft can create a device that people want, but its probably too expensive to really take off as a DVR. History could be repeating itself here with a closed proprietary system (Apple) overtaking an more open proprietary system (Microsoft). Of course consumers seem content with their cable rental DVRs so getting them to purchase any DVR is difficult (just ask TiVo). Still Apple has something that no other technology company has, the iPod and unless they can move their shows from their Scientific Atlanta DVR or Microsoft MCE to the video iPod, I suspect they'll be looking for an Apple solution (much to the chagrin of TiVo and their TiVoToGo).
There were media players before the iPod came along. Names like Rio were synonymous with mp3 players. The big question is WHEN Apple moves into the "media center" market, will the same thing happen to Microsoft and MCE? The XBox 360 shows Microsoft can create a device that people want, but its probably too expensive to really take off as a DVR. History could be repeating itself here with a closed proprietary system (Apple) overtaking an more open proprietary system (Microsoft). Of course consumers seem content with their cable rental DVRs so getting them to purchase any DVR is difficult (just ask TiVo). Still Apple has something that no other technology company has, the iPod and unless they can move their shows from their Scientific Atlanta DVR or Microsoft MCE to the video iPod, I suspect they'll be looking for an Apple solution (much to the chagrin of TiVo and their TiVoToGo).
