I was reading an article earlier this week that attempted (and failed miserably) to suggest that Apple has bumped Microsoft out of the position it once held as the industry bully and monopoly artist. It’s contention was that the iPod, and iTunes, constituted a monopoly and that Apple is ready and willing to abuse it.
It caused me to think for a while about what it was suggesting. First it was suggesting that iTunes + iPod is a monopoly because in order to sync to the iPod you have to use iTunes. Same for the iPhone. Ignoring for a second the small fact that the author is wrong (I am able to sync to and use my iPod in Ubuntu Linux – for which iTunes is not even available – out of the box with no hacking ), why would this constitute a monopoly? He likens it to when Microsoft was getting in trouble for abusing monopoly power by bundling IE with Windows. The problem there is that he’s comparing apples to oranges. itunes + ipod is nowhere NEAR IE + INTERNET, why Microsoft got in trouble was because they were bundling their browser with their OS (in fact, making it an integral part of their OS so that you coudln’t even REMOVE IE ) and trying to abuse their market share in such a way as to make using IE the only viable way to surf the ‘net. In short, they were abusing their monopoly on the desktop computer OS market to further their own agenda and prevent competitors from gaining a hold. iTunes + iPod doesn’t really do that. For starters, there are plenty of other alternative media players out there – and every one of them has specialized software to sync them – and in most cases a music store to use. Look at the Zune and the Zune marketplace, for instance. What Apple has done is not uncommon, and in actuality is common practice.
Where the author DOES have some interesting points is that, should you in the future want to switch to a different media device other than iPod you won’t be able to play music purchased from iTunes on it. He’s right, of course, and while there are ways around that problem (burning to cd and then ripping ) they are time consuming and SHOULDN’T have to be done. He does, unfortunately, blame Apple for this limitation – unfairly. The reason one can’t transfer the music to other devices is a little thing called DRM (Digital Rights Management) that is mandated by the RIAA. Because the music has to be encrypted with DRM it can’t be played on players that don’t understand the encryption. iPods are the only ones that understand the iTunes drm encryption.
Apple has stated openly that it’d be more than happy to sell songs DRM free, and in fact all of the music available from EMI on iTunes can be purchased DRM free. If you want to get rid of the ridiculous restrictions DRM imposes on you then you should take your fight to the RIAA – not Apple.
Some have complained about the lack of ability to upload ring tones to the iPhone. Apple recently added the capability of ringtones to iTunes. You can now BUY ringtones there. Even as an Apple fanboy (it’s true, I am one, and I can admit it) I don’t really like the way they implemented it. That’s not to say I blame Apple for that, though.
To get a ringtone from iTunes, you have to select one of the 500,000 tracks available for ringtones. You have to buy both the actual full song , likely 99 cents, then the ringtone for an additional 99 cents. Personally, I feel that if I want to make a ringtone out of a song I PURCHASED, I should be able to do so without having to pay more money (after all, you’re basically paying the same price you paid for the full song , for the privilege of playing 30 seconds of it when someone calls you). I don’t blame Apple for this, as I realize that it’s this way because the record companies want it to be.
It’s easy to look at these things and blame Apple – after all they do own the iTunes store. Unfortunately, while they ARE the leaders in online music distribution – they are still bound by terms set by the big music companies.
I like iTunes. It handles my media very well and makes it easy for me to do a lot of things. I’m NOT a fan of DRM, though, and that certainly sours some of my experience with iTunes. I don’t blame Apple, though.
I too am a big fan of iTunes, and I don’t even have an iPod! I use it as my primary media player b/c it sorts all of my music very neatly, and then transfer all the songs to Rhapsody, the program I use to sync with my Sansa mp3 player. Also, any media player I have used gives the option to import from iTunes – it’s less them being the monopoly, and much more that iTunes is simply the norm!
Also, for anyone that would like to make FREE ringtones from mp3 files they already have on their computer, check out this site: http://www.myxertones.com. It has simple instructions; basically you upload the song, choose which part of it you would like to be the ringtone (up to 1 minute long I believe), and then have it sent to your phone via SMS. It’s awesome!