Sprint, Samsung look for piece of iTunes’ pie
Sprint, Samsung look for piece of iTunes’ pie
Posted by Lab Rat
Today saw the announcement of not one but TWO new online music services looking to compete with Apple’s iTunes store. First out of the gate is Sprint Nextel Corp, whose just announced “Power Vision� is the first online music download service offered by a US cell carrier. Power Vision is similar to Verizon’s high speed VCast network which allows customers to download video content to their phones over a high speed wireless connection, but Power Vision is the first to add music to the equation. Sprint plans to sell songs for a rather steep $2.50 a song, in contrast to iTunes’ $0.99 per song. For that price, customers will get 2 versions of their songs, one formatted for use on their cell phone, and another higher quality version they can burn to a CD from their computer. Sprint claims users will not mind paying the extra cost in exchange for the “convenience� of a mobile download, and say the added cost covers the extra bandwidth usage required to purchase songs. Cingular, the US carrier for Apple’s and Motorola’s iTunes enabled ROKR cell phone, is expected to release a similar music store next year.
In addition to the announcement by Sprint, this morning also saw the media picking up on an announcement made last week by Samsung’s president Choi Gee-sung stating, “We are now in talks with our partners to debut a service program like iTunes of Apple. Our No. 1 priority is to help customers use our products with ease.’ Samsung’s service is perhaps a more worthy adversary and potential threat to Apple. Samsung manufacturers flash memory chips for use in many brands of digital music players, including the iPod. The odds are if they were to build their own music players, they would be able to compete aggressively on price against most rivals. The biggest advantage shared by both iTunes and the iPod is their relative simplicity. Gee-sung’s remarks seem to imply the Samsung is aware it needs to offer an impressive user experience in order to compete with Apple.
Of course, the great disadvantage any company hoping to enter the online music sale/player business faces is that none of the songs purchased in their stores will be compatible with the iPod, nor will any songs purchased via iTunes work on their players. Apple’s dominance in the music player market becomes more apparent with each iPod sold. The longer these companies wait to come out with this week’s “iPod killer�, the more of an investment in sticking with Apple most music fans will have. Once a person has $500 of purchased iTunes songs, it will be harder to convince him to switch services, no matter how “convenient� buying a song on the road is, or how “easy to use� their store’s interface is.
Apple announces over 1 million videos sold in under 20 days
Posted by Helper Monkey
In a statement released today Apple announced it has sold over 1 million videos via its iTunes music store in under 20 days. Given the fairly limited selection of videos to choose from (2,000, most of which are music videos) these are industry-rattling numbers. Steve Jobs noted these sales numbers imply a greater demand than expected, and vowed to increase the number of offerings.
“Selling one million videos in less than 20 days strongly suggests there is a market for legal video downloads,� said Jobs. “Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings, so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods.�
Considering the video iPod has only been available for 2 weeks, it would seem most purchasers are watching these videos on their home computers. This would seem to fly in the face of the traditional thinking that people do not want to watch tiny, compressed movies on their traditionally small sized computer screens and tiny speakers. It also implies that there may be up to 1 million people out there right now saving up for a video iPod purchase in the very near future. Looks like a merry start to the holiday season for Apple.
OS X 10.4.3 due this weekend
Posted by Lab Rat
Macenstein’s sources have told us to expect the release of OS X 10.4.3 sometime this weekend, or Monday at the latest. This update is a monster, weighing in close to 100MB, and is expected to squash just about all known bugs that 10.4.2 missed (and some that it caused). Key updates to the Core Image, OpenGL and CoreGraphics are expected, largely in support of new features found in Front Row, Aperture, and Photo Booth. Numerous smaller tweaks to just about everything ranging from iChat to Safari are rumored to be included as well, but no major new functionality is expected.
Yahoo doubles its subscription music prices
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
Yahoo Inc. has announced it will be doubling the fees charged to users of its online music download service. The monthly cost will jump from $6.99 per month (or $60 annually) to $11.99 a month ($120 annually). Yahoo, like many other online music services, uses a subscription plan instead of iTunes’ “pay-per-download� model. The subscription plan gives users access to over 1 million songs for a flat fee, so users are effectively “renting� songs. If a user of a subscription plan opts out of the service, they no longer have access to any of their music. Songs purchased through Yahoo and other online music services are not compatible with Apple’s iPod player.
This price increase was widely expected by industry insiders who felt Yahoo would be unable to keep such a low price on services. Still, even with Yahoo’s increased fees, members still pay less than users of rivals Napster and Real Networks respective services.
Civilization IV for Mac coming early 2006
Posted by Lab Rat
Aspyr announced today that they will be publishing the latest version of the massively addictive turn-based strategy game, Civilization IV for the Mac, due out in early 2006. Also announced is the planned release of Civilization III: Complete for Mac, with a target date of December 2005.
(above: Civilization IV)
Civilization III: Complete combines the original Civilization III and adds both the “Conquests� and “Play the World� expansion packs. The “Conquests� pack adds more of everything you love about Civilization III, including 7 new civilizations, more types of units and unit abilities, more wonders and scenarios, and AI improvements. The “Play the World� expansion pack adds 8 new civilizations, but more importantly, will allow Mac users to finally play online against other Civilization addicts (although, they will mainly be playing fellow Civ III Mac users, as most PC gamers will already be firmly entrenched in Civilization IV, released for the PC earlier this month.)
Mac users have been forced to grow accustomed to the inevitable delay in porting hot-selling PC titles to the Mac. In most cases, Mac publishers must wait for the final version of a PC game to be completed before they can get their hands on the source code to begin their port. Civilization IV hit the streets for PC users a couple weeks ago in a special limited Presale Edition, still available on Amazon..
(above: Civilization IV’s new 3D map view)
It has not been confirmed as to whether or not Civ IV for Mac will have identical features to the PC version, but the list of improvements to the PC version should give Mac gamers something to look forward to. New to Civilization IV is a brand new and beautifully rendered 3 D environment with new unit animations and customizable armies. Wonder movies are back. A new Team Play mode allows users to set alliances and share wonders, either online or in single player mode. There is online play out of the box, and extensive modability, including a powerful Map Editor. And of course there are a bunch of exciting new civilizations and units to be discovered as well. Full information on the updated feature set can be found on the official Civilization 4 website.
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