Posted on 12/06/2005 3:03:25 AM PST by Panerai
Rob Glaser has made his peace with Microsoft's Bill Gates. Now, the RealNetworks chief executive is turning up the rhetoric against another technology icon: Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs.
At the Digital Living Conference here on Monday, Glaser told a packed hotel ballroom that Jobs & Co.'s refusal to make the iPod compatible with music services other than Apple's iTunes was "pig-headedness." Glaser also said that Apple's unwillingness to cooperate with other online music vendors promotes piracy of copyrighted materials and will eventually draw the wrath of consumers.
These are heady times for Glaser and his Internet multimedia company, which announced in October that it had reached a favorable settlement with Microsoft on the $1 billion lawsuit RealNetworks filed in 2003.
Under the deal, Microsoft agreed to pay $460 million in cash to settle the antitrust claims and will also pay $301 million to support RealNetworks' music and game efforts. In addition Microsoft will promote RealNetworks' Rhapsody subscription music service on its MSN Web business.
Perhaps Jobs unknowingly helped RealNetworks and Microsoft find common ground. In 2004, Glaser appealed to Jobs to make the popular iPod compatible with other music services. Microsoft has long sought to strike partnerships in the digital-music arena to help it challenge Apple's enormous lead in the sector.
Jobs responded by telling his shareholders that a deal with RealNetworks simply was "not worth it." Glaser didn't let that stop him. In July 2004, RealNetworks released a version of its music download service compatible with Apple's iPod--without the permission of Jobs & Co. Apple has called it "hacker tactics" but hasn't filed a lawsuit.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com ...
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3756867
Note the capacity. Under $150.
This is the first wave.
You also need to think of the cost of materials. A 512MB flash chip runs around $30-35 in bulk.
That price will come down pretty quick.
For the record, I've seen all kinds of "off brand" and odd looking MP3 players around Chinatown. So, that's what I'm partially basing my prediction on...
I've seen the player that I'm probably going to buy. It has no internal memory and reads from a USB memory stick. Upgrading is a matter plugging in a new stick.
Ah, now there's a solution I didn't think of -- you have a pic of it?
Microsoft is no more a monopoly than Apple is. You can not only still choose an alternative, but the leading alternative to Microsoft and Apple is FREE OF CHARGE. Yet million of users freely decide to pay extra for Windows or even more extra for OS X.
It's called "quality". get over it.
I refuse to use REALplayer, and this sort of nonsense, where the courts are forcing MS to promote another company's business is just nuts... But then, that's what the courts have become, anyway.
Mark
Exactly! I can't see how a sane person could say that Apple has a monopoly... Well, I guess they could say that Apple has a monopoly on iPods, but certainly NOT on personal music players! How many brands are out there? There are tons of flash memory music players out there, and they're getting cheaper and cheaper. And all of them play standard MP3s. Heck, I've got a Sony portable Discman that I've had for years that plays WMA and MP3 files, my car has a CD player that plays them too. You can get off-brand portable MP3 CD players now for as little as $30! As does my home DVD player, hooked into my stereo (great for playing ripped audio books. I have the first 4 Harry Potter audio books on a single DVD!). Seems to me that there are plenty of places that REAL can pedal their wares. Of course, if they only want to distribute their music in REAL format, forcing Apple to add REAL format to the iPod, it sounds to me that THEY are trying to keep things proprietary themselves, by excluding all those MP3 players I mentioned earlier! Exactly what they're claiming Apple is doing with the iPod!
Saying that Apple has a monopoly on "personal music players" because the iPod uses their own service is like the wine industry saying that oil companies have a monopoly on personal travel, because cars don't run on wine, only gasoline! Of course, the courts might just rule in the wine industry's favor.
Mark
Funny you mention the nano, because that one in particular won't happen. Samsung is the world's largest producer of NAND memory (the kind used in flash-based players). Apple bought up 40% of Samsung's NAND memory production for the next five years at a steep discount (still $100 million a year), and also made big, long-term deals with Hynix, Toshiba and others.
So matching the nano's price will be hard since it'll cost almost anyone else a lot more for the memory that goes into the player.
Simply "economy of scale." I work on computers for a living. I remember the days when a floppy disk drive sold for well over $100. Back then, if the floppy drive stopped working, you would get out some test equipment and alignment disk, and realign the heads. Or if there was a problem with the system, you'd start testing individual components. You can't do that now: Surface mount devices are nearly impossible to replace. Today, you simply try a new drive or board. If it fixes the problem, you dispose of the old one. It's not that the quality is lower (although in some cases it is), it's just that the more you make, they cheaper they become. It's typical in electronics. Look at VCRs and DVD players as well.
Mark
"Steve Jobs is a nasty man. "
Maybe, but he sure is a whiz at product development.
And that's the normal price. Referring to my #29, I wonder how much Apple pays.
I downloaded the latest Quicktime to watch a video and discovered iTunes installed.
Quicktime is gone.
"million of users freely decide to pay extra for Windows or even more extra for OS X."
Customers opt for Windows because they don't feel technically proficient enough to handle Linux. If they buy OSX it's because it's the best.
There still is a need for a viable alternative to the monopolistic Windows.
Gah, Real Networks.
Back in the day it was great. Now it's an invasive piece of pestware. Too bad Microsoft didn't bankrupt Real. I can't think of another company that has gone from loved to loathed as fast as Real.
Die real, die!
Those little cubes got a good review in a magazine I read recently. I don't remember if it was Cargo or Sync.
No, Mr. Glaser, I would call that good business sense.
How is it a monopoly if there are alternatives? You've already noted two. You're apparently just whining like a liberal because you don't like Microsoft.
Probable they didn't want to get into one of those coltran messes like Sony with video games...but still.
http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/stm/stm139.html
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