Updated: Regarding iTunes 9 Allowing 3rd Party Devices to Sync
UPDATE: MacRumors is saying they have good reason to believe these images are, indeed, fake...
Boy Genius received some more screen shots of what's alleged to be iTunes 9, showing a Samsung YH-J70JL Black -- of all things -- purportedly syncing with the front end of Apple's media management empire. PreCentral.net jumped on this to ponder out-loud if Apple was having a change of heart regarding locking out Palm's previous attempts to spoof an iPod ID and sync with iTunes on the down-low, and will now allow non-Apple devices access. TiPb, however, can see this playing out in only 3 ways:
- The screen shots, or that specific feature at least, isn't real
- The 'verse gets rebooted, Star Trek-style, and Steve Jobs ain't in it.
- Jobs is going nu-cu-lar and will allow every device except the Palm Pre to sync with iTunes.
Option 3 looking the most likely at this point?
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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I think the Labels leaned on Apple and told them they were not interested in Apple Exclusivity, and they wanted iTunes to sync with anything and everything.
Apple, finally realizing that 30% of the total money from 25% of all music sales was just too sweet to pass up.
(Side benefit: By opening up itunes syncing, they avoid FTC investigations for using its market monopoly in one area - mp3 players, to gain a monopoly in another area -online music sales.)
Since Apple is selling just about everything it can manufacture, the old argument about allowing others to sync hurts device sales is simply wrong, and has been for a long time.
Jobs is going nu-cu-lar and will allow every device except the Palm Pre to sync with iTunes.
This would be freaking hysterical.
@icebike:
Don't see any of that happening. If labels could lean on Apple, consumers would be living in worse DRM-hell, buying bundles, and not being able to move music at all.
30% minus storage, bandwidth, admin, credit card processing, etc. is no business Apple wants any part of other than to promote high margin hardware sales.
FTC has nothing to investigate -- 25% is not a monopoly in music, there's lots of competition in MP3 players all of which can play DRM-free iTunes music already. And the MP3 market as a whole is shrinking while convergent devices like smartphones are growing and Apple has almost no market share in those still (mind share is a different story).
Most of all, can't see Apple wanting anything to do with having to supply stable APIs they can't change, or having to provide backwards support to 3rd party players killing their ability to rapidly and nimbly develop iTunes into whatever it needs to be in the post MP3-era.
Option 3 is all we have left at this point. Bring the rain, Steve, bring the rain.
Option 3 would be so hilarious...
Just imagine all the Palm users going crazy!!
Would love to see option 3 the only thing that would be better would be a label saying now compatible with blackberry, win mobile, and android
@Rene:
30% of music represents a LOT bigger fraction of on-line music. A near monopoly. Microsoft does not have a monopoly of operating systems either. Yet they got way more FTC attention than they deserved. You don't need a perfect monopoly to come under scrutiny.
You also gloss over the fact that iTunes still makes money for apple directly, without relying on hardware sales, in spite of your dread "cost of doing business", which Apple has totally automated. (For pete sake, are you hand shipping everything I order from the Itunes store? People automate this stuff. Apples been in business for more than a week.
Stable APIs are not hard for a computer company. Its what Apple does. They have programmers. They don't have to promise it will never change. Nobody does that.
Nope, I see no reason apple would not want this business even if it means serving its competitors.
The quality is so bad in this pic if you zoom in. Has to be fake. If not then let's see a high-res pic.
Why wouldn't they allow this? It just means more people buying their music from iTunes. They'll always have their share of the mp3 player and smartphone hardware market.
Forgotten here is Palm partnered with Amazon for music, so itunes is a moot point.
Saying blocking the Pre will tank the itunes business is preposterous. Youll loose a few hundred users, tops. But how many people will be swayed into gettin Apples iphone instead? The iphone/ipod gains will trump the songs lost.
Furthermore, Apple doesnt HAVE to give access to any device they dont want to sync. Show me where they have to, please do. Or a law regulating them to sync with mobile devices when there are other ways to buy music, specifically Amazon right on the Pre!
@Rene I agree with icebike, 25% off all music is around 70-75% of the digital market place and I doubt apple will lose any hardware sales, people will buy a superior product(which I believe the iPod line is) and if it's not it's definitely the most recognized mp3 player in the world. Granted not everyone has or likes an iPod but everyone loves music. I think it's a sound busines idea that will generate bigger profits.
@Klmsu19:
Read the story before rushing to post.
There is some indications that Apple has DECIDED ALL BY ITSELF to service Samsung devices. So all your protestations are moot.
Option 4 - Samsung purchased licensing rights to sync with iTunes?
@icebike
Were referring to the Pre here as this is what this is about mainly.
And personally Palm deserves what it gets. they decided to try to backdoor Apple and now they have to deal with it. If Apple lets Samsung and others, then great. They didnt try to go and hack into itunes to sync.
iTunes Store profitability:
2007, estimated at 10% of revenue. On music sales of $1.9 billion, that gives us an operating margin of $190 million. http://tinyurl.com/2c4q2u
2008 estimates 160 to 390 million. http://tinyurl.com/lrqr2d
2009: More than 2 billion songs sold per year. Times 10 cents profit per song, = $100,000,000 http://tinyurl.com/l8bo3x
So, Rene may sneeze at 100 million dollars, but I'm pretty sure Apple doesn't.
@Icebike: I sneeze only because it's allergy season, but Apple typically likes 30% margin
Anyhow, MacRumors is saying the screenshots are fakety fake fake, so updating...
@icebike
MS got more FTC attention than they deserved? Not a monopoly? They were judged a monopoly in a court of law. All they did was make the full Web experience Windows only by killing Netscape then introducing proprietary code in IE. How would you feel if Sony were the only TV that could get all the channels?
@Simontheevenot:
Mr. Bad Analogy Guy, is that you?
Netscape still existed. So did Opera. So did the Mac. So did Linux.
My point was that you don't have to be a perfect monopoly to be judged one on court.
So thanks for proving my point.
Monopoly is not illegal. Cable companies are typically monopolies. To be a monopoly and then abuse it to stifle competition is what gets you in trouble, like when one chip company says they won't give you deep discounts if you also offer a competitors' chip as well.
I hope it's option 3. That would be cool. They have to advertise it as a key feature though, otherwise the people who buy cheap mp3 players (high school kids) won't know.
This makes sense as a feature though because now that iTunes is DRM-free the songs can be played on other devices. So why not provide the ability to sync to those devices? Apple has what, 77% of the mp3 player market? It wouldn't hurt their sales at all. iPod has been the most trendy PMP for almost 10 years... I don't see that stopping.
@Adam:
Only music is DRM-free. Hollywood will take a while to come around. Not sure it's a good user experience if 3rd party devices can only sync "some", not "all" of iTunes content. "Why isn't Dark Knight syncing to my Zen...? @#%$%! Apple iTunes is broken..." or "Hey, Tweetie app isn't syncing to my Pre! Get the torches and pitchforks!!"
Exactly. Not only that, but this is the typical Apple I've known for two decades ー they won't baby-sit others' nonsense that never works right possibly resulting in them looking bad. They won't jump through flaming hoops cleaning up after iClones every time they're all jacked up with troublesome updates. Won't happen ー "Get the h€ll off my lawn, you punk kids!!"
Apple will continue going it alone, and just keep trying to win people over. No biggie.
@fastlane
Agreed. Apple products work best with other Apple products. Once you go down the Apple road though you have to spend some serious $$. Apple is a lifestyle that you have to buy into to get the full experience and it isn't cheap.
Meh. Who actually cares. I don't. Most people who read this have an iPod anyway, so why would someone with some other PMP even read this??? Hmmm???
Usefull writeup. Not often do I read the entire post. Thanks again for the usefull information.