Apple's Discontinuation of Lala Streaming Music Service Not Likely Leading to Imminent Launch of Web-Focused iTunes

[Eric S.]

I have been a fairly loyal Apple customer since I switched from PCs in 2005. The Lala shutdown, in addition to recent Apple moves, makes me re-think my decisions to buy the Adobe Suite for Mac instead of PC, to purchase Final Cut instead of Avid as my next video editing app, and to ever think about using Logic instead of Pro Tools.

Yeah, it's annoying. Some of Apple's recent moves are reminiscent of Microsoft in the 1980s and '90s, when they regularly bought up and shut down, or through legal means otherwise impeded, smaller companies that threatened their core business, even though those smaller companies offered advanced technology that users really wanted. It's sad to see Apple taking the role they once fought against. Apple used to be a champion of "third-party opportunities," letting other companies expand the Mac platform's capabilities. But Steve Jobs always favored a more closed platform approach; he had to be dragged into opening the original Mac with a SCSI bus, for example. Now with recent moves like the iPad he seems to be pushing Apple more into closed products again.