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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio candidates - Moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pyslent who wrote (1502)	6/12/2005 5:09:29 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2955

Alternatives to iPOD, iTUNES and ITMS pyslent, Let me first say that I appreciate your inputs, and that of others with iPOD experience, to this discussion and I also appreciate Apollo's kicking it off. I've learned a lot about MP3 Players and the market for them, Apple's competitors, iPOD, iTUNES, ITMS, and where the market could be headed since Apollo kicked the dialogue off. Especially I've learned how Microsoft (a silverback that I held for many years) plays in this game. << One of the major advantages of iTunes that may have slipped your notice is the ability to generate "smart playlists"-- that is, playlists that are generated from your local music collection based on criteria that you specify. >> I caught it. Nice feature. << I suggest you also include the new Yahoo Music Engine in your comparison of jukebox programs, as it appears to be as "open source" as these things go, with a open plugin architecture that seems to be focused thus far on replicating iTunes functionality, but can be expected to advance the state-of-the-art in the future >> I'm gonna skip it and let somebody else do it. <g> I'll tell you why. You probably observed me telling Tinker, that I did not think the Rhapsody v. 3.0 Player was stable and I'd had to uninstall, reinstall several times on my primary desktop. I'm not sure that was specifically a Rhapsody problem. Prior to loading it (and after loading on iTUNES) I had taken Musicmatch Jukebox Plus 10 up a notch and had severe problems after the upgrade and had to do an XP system restore and troubleshoot my cable modem connection, then reload MMJ+10. I think I've cleaned up the system but I also think I had conflicts between various media players. I have now removed iTUNES (not easy to get rid of all the remnants of that beast) MMJ+10 (same comment as with iTUNES) and now run Rhapsody v. 3.0 as my audio manager, Microsoft's WMP 10 for other media, the free Real Player for when I need it, and Dell's DVD player. Knock on wood. I think my primary DPE is clean and stable again. I might add that on the 1st day of my 14 day trial (still in progress) I paid $40 for a one year subscription to Rhapsody Radio (I'm now a subscriber as opposed to simply an account holder that can purchase) and created 6 10-artist custom stations last evening, and added a dozen stations in addition to 12 free stations to "My Stations" which is the lock they have on me. The integration of that radio to the store is simply sensational, IMO, and it is what hooked me on the player and the subscription service. I'm now shopping an upgrade to my office PC speakers which are aftermarket high end to begin with. On a parallel note, some might remember that the initial Windows version of iTUNES was a buggy mess. Such is the nature of software. I think the usability edge iTUNES has enjoyed may be fading. << Yahoo Music Engine and RealPlayer (not sure about Rhapsody) are able to mount the iPod and transfer mp3's to the device. >> Rhapsody can mount the iPod and transfer MP3's to the device. It's evidently a newer iteration of the Harmony hack and we'll see if Steve Jobs plans another iPOD firmware upgrade to defeat it like he did last time. << Apple is hoping that the theoretical $50 that the average user has invested in iTunes downloads will serve as "lock-in" to the iTunes player itself, but if hundreds of dollars of investments in cassettes and LPs didn't prevent me from buying a CD player in the 80s, what's $50 :) ? >> Same here although I was a laggard. With over 2,000 well cared for LPs collected since 1956 and 2 high end linear tracking turntables both of which had $500 cartridges, I didn't start the move to CDs till 1989 when I leased my 1st business car with a high end FI Bose system and a single disc player -- fortunately with a cassette tape player which my next vehichle with a high end Bose system lacked. I'm very fortunate. My eldest son-in-law is as serious an audiophile as I am and owns two exceptional and exotic light tracking turntables that blow my classic B&O Beogram away. He loves classic Jazz, Big Band, and the Classics the better tracks of which I'd moved to HDD from my own collection on cold winter evenings. A few years back I asked if he would like the high end portions of my LP collections of the same. They were out the door and into his SUV (in about 20 trips) before I could say "Jack Flash." He came back for the cabinets that housed them in a 2nd trip. His wife, my daughter and mother of 5.9 (the younger has one) of my grandchildren grew up on that music. I'll never forget when she was in 8th grade, dressing for school upstairs while I was drinking coffee and about to shuffle off to my downtown Pittsburgh office. The prior day a 4-disc collection of early Louis Armstrong had arrived on red virgin vinyl and I was listening to a 1929 remaster of "Butter and Egg Man." She came out of the upstairs bathroom and down the stairs, to utter and ask "that's fantastic ... who is that and what is it?" When she returned from school that day she asked me to cut it off onto a casette mix for her. I could have sold those collections for well more than I paid, but it is a great pleasure to have them in the family and being enjoyed. << Personally, I don't feel that either iTunes or the iTunes Music Store represent compelling reasons to continue to use our 2 iPods. Rather, the real lock-ins are my wife's car (BMW) and my aftermarket stereo (Alpine with iPod adapter). >> That is the conclusion I am coming to. Although there are probably many individuals (but a relatively small portion of the user base) that have invested considerably more in FairPlay locked iTUNES and wouldn't want to be bothered with transcoding, the more serious lock is that portion of the user base (probably equally small that has invested in pricey accessories. People lock to one brand of mobile phones for the same reason -- wired handsfree car kits or speaker stands, headphones, etc. All that is, however becoming increasingly open. << My advice for those considering an mp3 player is to size up their accessory needs, and determine if the iPod accessories are things they would want. If not, then get a PlaysForSure device, because compatibility with the portable subscription model is something I envy, even as a long-time iPod user. >> Well stated. Some advance planning is in order. Best, - Eric -