Fans Disappointed with MacWorld
At yesterday's MacWorld keynote, Steve Jobs unveiled no new major music initiatives at iTunes or with the iPod line.
At yesterday's MacWorld keynote, Steve Jobs unveiled no new major music initiatives at iTunes or with the iPod line.
Jobs said that iTunes had passed the 4 billionth track download, but that represents a slight slow down of growth. No IPod numbers were shared, but again analysts suspect that sales growth is slowing.
Those same analysts were less than impressed by the announcements that Jobs did make yesterday including movie rentals at iTunes and an amazingly thin new MacBook Air.
The stock market reacted sending Apple's stock down $5.45 by the end of trading on Tuesday.
Music industry observors had hoped for an Apple subscription music service or expansion of its wirelesss download platform, but Apple hinted at no such initiatives. And after claiming to be the original DRM-free warrior, Jobs' puzzlingly slow roll-out unrestricted tracks from indies on iTunes coupled with a failure thus far to match Amazon's DRM free deals with WMG and Sony BMG is causing some to question his sincerity.
The industry wide roll out of DRM free music has punched huge holes in Jobs' closed iPod/iTunes ecosystem that may never be repaired. For the moment at least, Amazon has assumed the roles of both innovator and music industry darling; and others are poised to compete as well. There's a deep pocketed and highly competitive Microsoft plotting their next moves. Rhapsody has a freshly minted MTV alliance and promises innovation. Napster and Yahoo Music both still seem determined to find a business model that works. And then there are dozens of startups with plans to meet some barely recognized consumer desire and grab a piece of the Apple pie.
DO YOU THINK APPLE HAS GONE AS FAR AS IT CAN GO WITH MUSIC?
What do you think?
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5 comments:
Great post! I definitely don't think Mac has gone as far as it could go with music, just think that maybe they want to focus on their other products. It seems that they have put so much emphasis on music for the past 2 years or so, what with ipods, nanos, iphones, etc., that they may be getting away from the 'meat' of their company - which is the Mac computer. I definitely think they will make more money in the long by letting the market get used to what music initiatives have been created thus far, and then they will probably come up with something new next year that every fan will be raving to have... Either way, I have to say that I am not too disappointed in Apple products yet... (:
I think I love my little white MacBook, but that I have not learned to utilize many of its features.
shirley Buxton
My IPod broke. I'm bitter...
But I like everything I see with their multimedia functionality...who likes to see Powerpoints anymore? Not me!
Mac is certainly always cutting edge. MS will always be around...they are rock steady and I think Mac will always have this trendy, yet volatile character. That's business. Interesting article though....man, some folks probably bought stock thinking it'd be like the last announcement and lost some serious money! Yikes.
Vonney, Sis.Buxton, and James... I also believe Apple hasn't exhausted its music capacity. Like the article states, I think a subscription music service or expansion of its wirelesss download platform might be in the future. Who knows what else? I'm not a disappointed Apple fan in what I've seen and used thus far. But my music expectations with Apple were crushed for the time being.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE apple...and I'm not disappointed at all. I'm thinking maybe people are getting too demanding and expecting too much of a company in a near-recession economy? Who knows. I have a lot of faith in the genius, Steve Jobs, and I agree with Yvonne that they need to get focused on their Mac. I've heard the idea that perhaps they are trying to reach too large of a consumer audience, and are therefor "selling out" on quality in order to gain quantity. Maybe it's true for items like the Mac Air thing, (or whatever it's called) but just because it doesn't have a disk drive doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Sure it's trendy, but WOW how convenient to carry that around in your briefcase instead of a heavier laptop. Travel would be made easier as well! Anyway, I'm sure James is right that people lost money in the stock market on that Tuesday for sure. I wonder how Microsoft is going to react to all this? Maybe the negative media about Apple is being funded/prompted by Bill Gates! HMmmmmmmm....gotta watch these tricky people! ;)
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