Sometimes I read articles online and rub my eyes in disbelief. It’s a never ending trail of rubbish. So it was last week with Forrester Research’s research showing iTunes Store sales going down. Who’s applauding this? Rob Enderle, media tech pundit.
Tucked neatly at the bottom of the latest in Enderle’s digital drivel in TechNewsWorld is the headline-- ”Apple’s Collapse.”
Collapse from what? The weight of Forrester’s tarnished report that iTunes sales are falling. Can anyone ever trust Forrester again?
Collapse from what? Enderle admits to being out of town, therefore out of touch, so I should cut him some slack. Until he starts typing again…
My ears, or, is it eyes? One of my senses perked up when I read this:
“Apple makes little or no money on iTunes music, but this music forms a switching cost barrier that prevents other MP3 products from cannibalizing existing Apple customers.”
Apple has never said the iTunes Store loses money, or breaks even. About all we can get is that there’s little profit to selling the music, more profit in selling iPods and accessories.
Between 1.5-billion and 2-billion songs have been downloaded from the iTunes Store so there’s bound to be a few pennies lining the quarterly statement of AAPL.
Regardless, the phrase “cost barrier” struck a nerve. There’s some accuracy there, though I wouldn’t use the term “cost” to describe the barrier to switching from iTunes Store or an iPod to something else.
There’s a “barrier” to moving from anything to anything, including from a troublesome Windows PC to a nearly trouble-free Mac with OS X. The barrier Enderle describes resides mostly in his head.
The so-called barrier he refers to is probably Apple’s Fairplay digital rights management (DRM) system inherent in iTunes and songs from the iTunes Store.
“In short, if you want to switch, you have to kiss off all your purchased tunes and then buy them again from someone else.”
Except that you don’t, so Rob is wrong. Again. How so? OK, I have a Mac and a Windows PC. I have music purchased from the iTunes Store. Assume that I’m ready to switch to a new SanDisk Sansa which is PC only, and ready to ditch my iPod and iTunes forever (already you’re thinking, “Jack-- you’re more of an idiot that this Enderle guy).
How do I get my iTunes music to the PC? Is it that hard?
Rob implies that there’s a trend going on with people dumping iPods, iTunes, and music from the iTunes Store.
“If fewer and fewer people buy music this way, this barrier gets weaker over time. That could be problematic for Apple, which is facing ever more-focused competitors.”
Ever more focused competitors? Who? Name one. In fact, name five competitors to Apple’s market dominating trio?
Wait? There’s more.
“Personally, I think this simply means that folks are realizing what a rip-off DRM (digital rights management)-protected downloaded music is, and they are going back to CDs so they can do what they want with the music they purchase.”
If they’re going back to CDs are CD sales going up? Are online sales going up or down? Which is it? Everyone but Forrester and Enderle indicate iTunes Store sales are continuing to grow.
The music industry says things are bad no matter what’s really happening, so their statements can’t be accepted as realistic or truthful.
Winning a Dumb Ass of the Week Award takes effort. After all, the week is yet young, but it’s hard to pass up such gems as this one.
“This may also indicate that buyers are getting fed up with how difficult it is to use downloaded music legally, and they want to stop funding an organization that treats music lovers as criminals.”
It’s difficult to use downloaded music legally? How so? It looks like tens of millions of iTunes Store customers have no trouble with Apple’s DRM scheme.
Worse, Rob just said Apple is treating music lovers as criminals but offers no proof. How about this? Rob is an idiot media tech pundit and the proof is available here, here, and here.
