Views from the Ivory Tower - December 2006
By Ted Bade
It seems hard to believe that yet another year is coming to a close, yet here we stand facing the last month of the year. December is a month of holidays and goodwill. Here in the North Eastern part of the US, this is the time of year when it begins to truly get cold. Work in our gardens and yards slows to a near stop, and we have a lot more time to stay inside and enjoy the warmth, our families, and our indoor hobbies. It is the time of warm fires, hot spiced apple cider, and enjoying conversation with our friends. Those of us with computers find more time to sit in front of them, working on a project, playing a game, or even conversing with distant friends and family. I hope you enjoy this season as much as I do.
Zune - This time of year is also the time when new interesting things often come to market. Games, software, electronic devices, all things the “geek” in us would love to own. I haven’t heard of any major interesting device from Apple, but Microsoft launched its MP3 player called Zune in mid-November. While this device will never replace the iPod, it does have some interesting features. It has wireless capabilities, which means you can share music with other Zune players. A great and effortless way to replace other file sharing methods such as LimeWire and BitTorrent, the best part being there will be no Internet server holding a record of your transfers. (Of course, you won’t have connection to as many people this way, unless you live in a large city.)
Another fun feature of the Zune is that it apparently will not play any songs the Microsoft faithful purchased from the now defunct MSN music site. Specifically this means any that are encoded with the “PlaysForSure” DRM (Digital Rights Management) architecture. This was according to an article I found on the Mac News World site: http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/6C080wrUKmYVWx/Report-MSN-Songs-Wont-Play-on-Zune.xhtml
While we are hitting on the Zune player, here is another interesting fact. At least initially, Zune will not be compatible with Microsoft’s new Vista operating system! http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/FcdSWQIsqFQ12O/Microsoft-Says-Zune-Incompatible-With-Vista.xhtml This would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Microsoft has become such a behemoth that it’s various divisions cannot seem to keep track of what other parts are doing. Sad, very sad.
Right after its release, there didn’t seem to be a lot of interest in this new player. However, Microsoft has great business sense, if nothing else worth mentioning. They devised an interesting scheme to attract record companies to the Zune. Apparently Microsoft is going to pay record company Universal $1 for each Zune sold. So Universal gets money, even if the artists they represent aren’t used on the Zune player! The CEO of Universal also went as far as accusing everyone of owning a player that is not a Zune of stealing music!
http://www.electronista.com/articles/06/11/13/universal/
I hope somebody takes him to task on that statement. But I think Zune owners get a good deal out of this, because they have “paid” a licensing fee, they apparently can download copies of any Universal music artist without paying any more! Microsoft is truly making giant strides in the music industry, back towards rampart piracy.
I expect that Universal won’t be making a killing on its $1 from Zune sales, but I do see this as a smart marketing move. If Universal can get Microsoft to crumble to its knees on this issue, perhaps other companies can get Apple to do the same. Not that I want this, but I can see a strategy here. This is something the record industry has wanted for years. Years ago, they fought to get a “tax” on cassette tapes. Their logic was that people only purchased cassette tapes to copy LPs (music). This fee would compensate the record industry for the illegal and less-than-legal copies. Which is exactly what Microsoft’s deal with Universal does in regard to the portable MP3 player. I get the feeling that the CEO of Universal thinks people only buy MP3 players to steal music.
This agreement between Universal and Microsoft says, “Hey, we know you are going to copy illegal music onto your portable player, so we want the money up front to compensate use for this”. I also imagine that this paid fee could be used against the record industry. If they were trying to sue a person for pirating music, a defense could be, ”Hey, I paid my dollar, you got your fee!”
Personally, I like Steve Job’s view of the situation. Provide an easy and inexpensive means of buying all types of music and people will be honest and buy it. I would add to this my opinion that there are people who are going to copy music illegally no matter what. It isn’t a good thing, but its reality.
Anticipation - In the meantime, Apple’s stock price has gone up in the later parts of November as the market anticipates another powerful holiday season for the iPod and even for Macintosh computers. There are rumors of an Apple-branded cell phone. There are always rumors about what Apple might or might not do. People want something new and innovative from Apple. They have grown to expect this. It would be a great thing for Apple Corporation if they could develop some new device that could turn around another aspect of society as much as the iPod and the iTunes Music Store has turned around the music industry. However, I have no idea what this might be. We will have to wait and see what interesting things come from Apple in the next year.
An interesting potential turn of events - The other day I was reading an online news article related to Apple. It was discussing rumors of Apple working a deal with CPU maker AMD. I have no idea if this is true or not, but it made me wonder about something:
Could it be possible that Mr. Jobs is creating a scheme where CPU makers vie for Apple’s business? With two or more compatible chip makers available. Apple would be in a position to choose the sweetest deals for their computers. They could create a Macintosh for every budget as well as to fit every level of computing need. From wimpy but adequate to super machines for the uber-geek!
This is the way Dell computers (and perhaps other computer companies), has done business for a while, but is a completely new thing for Apple. For years, Apple’s business has depended upon a single chip. If the manufacturer of this chip didn’t keep up with the rest of the industry, Apple couldn’t compete. This hurt their business a lot when Motorola failed to make the chip improvements that Apple needed to continue making competitive machines. With a choice of manufacturers and chips, Apple would be in a position to truly expand its marketshare. Couple this with the fact that any new Macintosh can run Mac OS X, Windows, any variety of x86 Linux and even comes with a version of Unix and you have the most versatile personal computer in existence. I cannot imagine why anyone would want to buy anything other then a Mac. But that’s me, I am biased!
Happy Holidays!
