iTunes Competitors Line Up (Samsung, Sprint)

[kaylee]

The importance of download speeds is so over-rated! How long could it take to download a song at 14.4kbs? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? My cell phone service is so reliable that, like, there’s little chance my call would be dropped in the middle of a download. In the unlikely event that a song download is interrupted by a drop or important incoming call, a quick call to customer service would have my bill adjusted in a jiffy! Like everyone else, I replace my phone every 18 months – how difficult could it be to transfer my songs to the new phone? (It will probably be as easy as transferring my address book.) I’ll just die if I can’t download songs anytime, anywhere, no matter the cost………..

I think you've summed it up quite nicely there. Mobile companies should stop trying to just cram every possible technology into phones; instead put a bit of thought into what would actually work well, and make it easy to use.

 

[2A Batterie]

People moan over cds being priced at $18.99 An album on CD usually has 12 or more tracks on it, so why would consumers pay $30 or more for an album's worth of material? I understand that sonic quality isn't terribly important to consumers, but it still doesn't make sense to pay way more for a version that is of far lower quality (sonically speaking).

 

[JMGvtec03]

Thats about what they charge for thier crappy ringtones... And that seems to be a Billion dollar market. Im sure some poor (In this case rich) sap will buy but to me this is just a waste.

-JMG-

 

[savar]

The mobile carriers all have this shared dillusion that everyone wants to buy music on their phone.

Mobile carriers have many delusions. One is that the average customer doesn't mind spending $75/mo. on cell phone service and accessories. $5 per month for a detailed bill? $7 per month for unlimited SMS? $10 per month to upload grainy pictures to their server?

The worst part is, every time I call Sprint, they ask if I want to extend my contract. I always respond: what are you offering in return? There's a moment of silence before I begin my much-rehearsed tirade on how contracts are a huge inconvenience to customers, everybody hates them, and there's no incentive to renew a contract if you're not going to upgrade my phone or anything.

Downloading mobile music is also really stupid. It used to be that a ringtone was $.99, and I figured that was bearable because its a one-time charge. Now its something like $1.50 for 3 months! Video games are $3-5 per month! The whole situation is ludricous, and the worst part is that the US is two-three years behind the rest of the world in cell phone tech, which just adds insult to injury.

I HATE cell carriers, and that is no exaggeration.

 

[inkswamp]

Why do they even bother?

Because there's money involved.

This kind of thing just smacks of a room full of business people studying the market and figuring out what they can squeeze out of it--and not a single damned one of them giving a rip about the music itself.

When Apple unveiled iTMS and the iPod, you got a sense that the people behind these things really deeply cared about music and wanted to create something that would accommodate music lovers. Sure, Apple wants to make a profit, but you could tell that they really cared about creating a system for music lovers that was as close to perfect as they could get... including the price.

Everything else that has come along since has just felt like marketing exercises.

 

[Renegate]

Samsung today officially denied it has plans for a music store!