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iTunes per iPod - ITMS Has Only Sold 21 Songs Per Machine
Apple's Chip Pain Will Ease -- Later
Marketing the Mac: Turning a Profit with Low-end Macs
Music Industry Sues More Computer Users
RIAA Tax Could Add Millions To Education Fees
Russian 'Legal' Music Site Offers Songs For 5¢
The Mac Market Share Myth
Mozilla, Gnome Mull United Front Against Longhorn
Database envy
Apple's Present To iTunes Users
Apple Sings a Happy iTune
Mac Night Owl: The Panther Report: Six Months and Counting
Why Shrink Wrap Software Won't Die
World PDA Shipments Plunge
Gradekeeper Software For Windows or Macintosh
U.S. Elections Worry Panasonic [/url]
iTunes per iPod - ITMS Has Only Sold 21 Songs Per Machine
The iTunes per iPod website asks:
Are all those iPods empty?
"Today is the one year anniversary of the iTunes Music Store. As of April 15, Apple had sold roughly 60 million iTunes and 3 million iPods (sources below). That's about 21 songs per iPod. For perspective, the smallest iPods hold 1,000 songs, and some hold 10,000 songs. So, when people fill up those iPods, where does all the music come from?
"Let's face it: the incredible capacity of computers, iPods, and iPod imitators means everyone is going to listen to much more music than they actually buy. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Filesharing networks have created the largest music library ever, and that's a tremendous benefit for the public.
"Since sharing music seems like it's here to stay, why not just legalize it in such a way that musicians and labels get paid? Voluntary Collective Licensing (VCL) is a proposal for a simple and practical system where you pay a flat fee for "all-you-can-eat" downloads and the money gets divided up to musicians and labels according to popularity. It would only cost you $5 a month, and unlike pay-per-song stores like iTunes (which take 35% of each sale) all of that money would go directly to musicians and record labels."
You can check it out at:
http://www.itunesperipod.com/
Apple's Chip Pain Will Ease -- Later
Businessweek's Alex Salkever says:
"Jobs & Co. is suffering from slow progress on speedier processors from IBM. Overall, though, Big Blue is the right partner for the job
"When IBM sneezes, Apple catches a cold, goes one variation on the old saw. As the maker of the PowerPC chips that run Apple's G5 desktop computers, IBM is Jobs & Co.'s most important supplier. In fact, Apple has more or less staked its computing future on the G5 line, produced largely out of IBM's Fishkill (N.Y.) facility. Now, IBM is struggling to produce cutting-edge G5 chips of sufficient quality in sufficient quantity, and the upper half of Apple's hardware lineup is in limbo.
"Sound familiar? Unfortunately for Apple, it faced a similar problem with the main supplier of its previous-generation G4 chips, Motorola. The Schaumburg (Ill.) company caused veins to pop and eyes to bulge at Apple HQ with its pokey pace of improvements.
"These days, IBM is the goat, as Apple clearly indicated in its Apr. 14 conference call. It's counting heavily on Big Blue for rapid improvements to G5 chips that could drive sales of the high-end PowerMac line. So IBM's troubles at Fishkill could hit Apple's bottom line hard because the high-range Macs are disproportionately profitable."
For the full report, visit here.
Marketing the Mac: Turning a Profit with Low-end Macs
Low End Mac's Dan Knight says:
"Today we'll look at how Apple can turn a profit by selling low-end Macs...
Here's the basic computer I suggested that Apple produce in yesterday's column:
• 1.0-1.5 GHz G4 using the same CPU socket found in recent Power Mac G4 models.
• Gigabit ethernet, Bluetooth, AirPort Extreme, USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and 800, and modem slots -- just like in the Power Mac G4.
• ATA/133 and ATA/100 buses. The first for hard drives, the second for optical drives. Four internal drives should be plenty with FireWire and USB 2.0 for adding external devices.
• Two 5.25" bays for optical drives. Two places to install 3.5" hard drives.
• AGP 8x for graphics, allowing this Mac to use the same video cards as the G5.
• Two PCI slots. That's plenty for almost anyone when you consider how much comes standard on the Mac. Anything less than two would make it less acceptable to "experts."
• 167 MHz system bus, 4 memory sockets, memory expansion to 2 GB. Not bleeding edge, but a commodity item that keeps costs down.
• A smaller case than the old Power Mac G4, since it would have less expansion slots.
"Always the optimist and always hoping that Apple will really go after the low-end consumer market someday, I suggested that Apple could probably sell a basic model (1Â GHz G4, low-cost 40 GB hard drive, 24x or 32 x CD-ROM, 256 MB RAM, a low-end AGP 8x video card, and a copy of OSÂ X with all the usual iApps) for US$600....
"Would this be enough to convince the so-called experts that Macs are expandable enough and upgradable enough to be considered as an alternative to Windows PCs? I think so, especially after we've convinced the world that different doesn't mean that Macs can't do what PCs do."
You can check it out at:
http://lowendmac.com/musings/04/0428.html
Music Industry Sues More Computer Users
AP Technology Writer Ted Bridis reports:
"The recording industry sued 477 more computer users Wednesday, including dozens of college students at schools in 11 states, accusing them of illegally sharing music across the Internet.
"The Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group for the largest labels, praised efforts by colleges and universities to use technology and school policies to crack down on music piracy on their computer own networks. But it said the most egregious offenders on campus deserved to be sued."
For the full report, visit here.
RIAA Tax Could Add Millions To Education Fees
The Register's Ashlee Vance reports:
"The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is once again using lawsuits to ramp up its plan to foist music subscription services on universities - a move that could cost colleges millions, leading to higher tuition fees.
"The music-label lobby group today dropped 477 new lawsuits into an already massive litigation pile. Of this group, 69 individuals were singled out by the RIAA, in a statement, for using university networks to trade music files via peer-to-peer services. The RIAA then went one step further and outed the offensive institutions, pointing to Brown University; Emory University; Georgia Institute of Technology; Gonzaga University; Mansfield University; Michigan State University; Princeton University; Sacred Heart University; Texas A & M University; Trinity College (Conn.); Trinity University (Tex.); University of Kansas; University of Minnesota; and Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
"In many ways, we just did the RIAA a favor by naming the schools, since that's exactly what the pigopolists are hoping for. The idea, more or less, is to finger these universities and push them toward picking up RIAA-friendly music subscription services. The only problem with the strategy, one that doesn't affect wealthy artists but rather hungry students, is that the schools may not be able to afford Napster and the like..."
For the full report, visit here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/28/riaa_sues_moreschools/
Russian 'Legal' Music Site Offers Songs For 5¢
The Register's Tony Smith says:
"A Russian online service may well have figured out how to do digital music downloads right: make tracks cheap and available in any format customers care to select.
"The site, allofmp3.com, was discovered by Sydney Morning Herald reporter Charles Wright who claims to have to have downloaded a DVD's worth of tracks - 968 of them, to be precise, all from big-name artists - for just under $50 (AU$66).
"Assuming all the songs were available on, say, Apple's iTunes Music Store, they would have set the fellow back over $958.
"...The site claims to be legal, having licensed its content from the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society - licence number LS-3M-03-79, the site says.
"Many of the songs are stored as uncompressed files, and the site will encode each track in your favourite format - MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, WMA and so on - at your preferred bit rate..."
For the full report, visit here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/28/russian_music_service/
The Mac Market Share Myth
gilgamesh's John Koetsier says:
"The conventional market share myth in the Macintosh world is simple.
"BMW only has a small fraction of the automobile marketplace, the Mac user may say, but no-one says that BMW is doomed, beleaguered, shrinking, dying, etc. etc. insert adjective of choice. Therefore Apple is safe as well, even if it is a niche product.
"Well, I’m a long-term Mac user, devotee, and fan, but that’s not the Mac Market Share Myth. The real market share myth is that market share is not important.
"Jobs and company have a few facts in their corner when they claim that market share is not important. One is the increasing importance of both standards and the internet. As long as the Mac supports certain standards, and works well on the net, the Mac user is an equal digital citizen.
Well, that’s partially true. But it’s not the whole story.....
"Market share for the Mac matters. It matters a lot. And the Mac will die, or drift off and become a pathetic hobbyist tool like the Amiga operating system, if Apple doesn’t really recognize the problem, see the solutions (there will be more than one) and act on it as quickly and decisively as possible...."
You can check it out at:
http://www.gilgamesh.ca/gilgamesh/index.php?p=27
Mozilla, Gnome Mull United Front Against Longhorn
CNET News.com'S Paul Festa reports:
"As Microsoft focuses on merging its Web browser and operating system software, open-source competitors are mulling a proposal to join forces and beat the software giant to the punch.
"Representatives from two open-source foundations, Mozilla and Gnome, met last week to consider a joint course of action aimed at keeping their respective Web and desktop software products relevant once Microsoft releases the next major overhaul of its Windows operating system, known as Longhorn.
"Microsoft now has 'a single team for Web and native desktop rendering,' noted one participant, according to meeting minutes posted on the Gnome Web site. 'Gnome and Mozilla need to align to counter this'."
For the full report, visit here.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5201325.html
Database envy
ITBusiness.ca says:
"The FileMaker Pro database is out in version 7 and we love it.
"This is one of the great ones. FileMaker was originally made by Apple and at first ran only on the Macintosh. Then it was broken out into a separate company called Claris, and now the company is just called FileMaker. That's because the program is famous now. The only other database I would recommend to most users is Alpha 5, from Alpha Software. The popular Microsoft database, Access, is so cumbersome that I've met people who make more than $100,000 a year just because they know how to use it."
You can check it out at:
http://www.databasejournal.com/news/article.php/3346481
Apple's Present To iTunes Users
Forbes' Arik Hesseldahl says:
"Apple Computer observed the one-year anniversary of its iTunes Music Store today by adding new features to the service and releasing new numbers to demonstrate its success.
"It's almost funny looking back on the strange buzz that surrounded Apple a year ago. Days before the service was unveiled, weird rumors surfaced that Chief Executive Steve Jobs was also intent on going after Vivendi Universal's music business. That deal never materialized.
"Still Apple has rocked the music industry. Jobs said in a conference call today that Apple has sold 70 million songs since launch, and it has turned what he described as a "small profit." Consumers are buying songs at a rate of 2.7 million songs per week, which works out to 140 million songs per year......"
For the full report, visit here:
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2004/04/28/cx_ah_0428aapl.html
Apple Sings a Happy iTune
internetnews.com's Michael Singer reports:
"Apple Computer celebrated the first year of its online music store Wednesday with an upgrade to its desktop music player and a change to its personal usage rights.
"The Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker said the iTunes desktop player version 4.5 for Mac and Windows is available as a free download. The company also plans to increase the number of authorized computers from three to five machines but decreasing the number of times users can burn a single playlist from 10 to seven times. Apple said it now has more than 700,000 songs from all five major music companies and over 450 independent music labels to its credit.
"CEO Steve Jobs said he was pleased with the results of the first year with more than 70 percent market share of legal downloads for singles and albums. Apple said its iTunes customers are currently purchasing 2.7 million songs per week."
For the full report, visit here:
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3346711
Mac Night Owl: The Panther Report: Six Months and Counting
It works for me, but maybe not for you.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm#counting
Why Shrink Wrap Software Won't Die
The Register's Andrew Orlowski says:
"Remember how the 'weightless digital economy' was supposed to make shrink wrap retail software as extinct as the dodo? Only a bozo would want to pay a premium for manual and a box.
"But shrink wrap isn't dead. Software publisher Avanquest, the new umbrella name for US-based publisher Elibrium, which owns major publishers in France, Germany, the United Kingdom (Guildsoft and MediaGold) and South Africa, saw sales rise 20 per cent last year, and expects 15 to 20 per cent this year.
"How can this be so?....."
You can check it out at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/28/avanquest_shrink_wrap/
World PDA Shipments Plunge
Also from The Register's Tony Smith:
"PDA shipments may be rising in Europe, but around the world as a whole they continued to decline during the first three months of the year, market watcher IDC reports.
"Some 2.2 million handheld devices shipped globally during Q1, down 11.7 per cent on Q1 2003 and 33.1 per cent fewer than Q4 2003's total."
You can check it out at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/28/global_pda_sales_q1/
Gradekeeper Software For Windows or Macintosh
[url=http://www.chron.com]http://www.chron.com[/url] says:
"Educators still penciling in their students' grades may want to take a look at Gradekeeper software for Windows or Macintosh. Gradekeeper provides teachers an education-oriented alternative to recording grades by hand or customizing Excel spreadsheets.
"Gradekeeper 5.5.1 for Windows and Macintosh is available for a 30-day free trial from http://www.gradekeeper.com/download.htm A single license costs $20, and pricing for school and district are also available."
For more, visit:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2535365
U.S. Elections Worry Panasonic
Reuters reports that:
"Japanese electronics group Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., maker of the Panasonic electronics brand, reported an annual profit on strong demand for plasma TVs and DVD recorders but its forecasts for the current year fell short of expectations.
"'We're very worried about how the U.S. economy will turn out after the presidential elections,' Matsushita Electric's Chief Financial Officer Tetsuya Kawakami told a news conference."
For the full report, visit here:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/28/news/international/panasonic.reut/index.htm
***
Charles W. Moore
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