We're on record saying that we think the iTunes walled garden stands as much chance as standing as CompuServe's or Berlin's, but we don't think it will get busted down anytime soon.
There are cracks caused by the legal issues that we covered when the phone currently-but-probably-not-inevitably-known-as-the iPhone came out. And, here, there is an update from Ars Technica today...
Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman Bjoern Erik Thon told the Associated Press that France's consumer lobby group, UFC-Que Choisir, and Germany's Ferbraucherzentralen are now part of the European effort to push Apple into an open DRM system, with more countries considering joining the group.
Way more interesting to me is real competition that offers better content at a higher bit-rate in MP3 format. Enter Other Music.
if you aren't an indie rock geek, you might know that Other Music is a revered Manhattan record store that has a highly selective and quality offering. Now, according to Wired News, Other Music will soon be offering MP3s to compete with iTunes and the more indie-friendly (yet subscription) eMusic. The model according to Other Music co-owner Josh Madell:
We will be selling high-quality files without DRM copy protection (our music is encoded at 320 Kbps rather than 192, the iTunes model, so the sound will be much better). All our pricing is not set yet, but we will definitely have to be a little more expensive than iTunes -- probably $10.99 per album rather than $9.99. I hope we can more than make up for the price with our selection, service, knowledge, features and, of course, the quality files. As for the label deals, this business works on percentages; you split revenue with the label for sales, and typically labels make 65 to 70 percent of the retail price.
The store will be here. Long tails make cracks, too.
El caliz de plata parecia brillar a la luz de las dos velas enormemente altas que
debian arder durante toda la noche. La mayoria de las poblaciones no podian
permitirse cirios pascuales en condiciones, pero el padre Ralph compraba en
Shaftesbury dos cada ano a los monjes, y los parroquianos acudian a la iglesia
para contemplarlos. No obstante, aquella noche, cuando oscurecio, friendless cinco
hombres admiraban las altas e inmoviles llamas.
Posted by: Goostewen | June 27, 2011 at 11:30 AM
* gently twiitsng your arm * We also have Quality Center available to us, but as you already mentioned, that is strictly a tester's tool, nobody else ever logs in to that. Quality Center is not really working in our agile project, either.We also use Confluence Wiki in our team, and your post inspired me to try out something similar.Will modify/refine along the way., and keep you posted.Thanks!
Posted by: Ruksar | July 06, 2012 at 12:57 PM
Now, after pressing the Post botutn in my first comment, I wonder: if China is such an important (and polluting) country, why we doesnt know anything about that country, or why its news and policies are not as important as the ones from the US?
Posted by: Robin | October 15, 2012 at 10:39 AM