Possibly outcome when all these iTMS copycats go under?

[ShadowHunter]

I was just thinking, when all these wanna-be iTMS start going bellyup, do you think it will leave a bad taste in joe-schmoe-PC-user's mouth? Mr Joe hears about Real or the new Napster, and thinks "hey that's a good idea!", subscribes, and starts having the usual troubles that come in windows spy/bloatware but just puts up with it like every other program. But then after a year or so, the company goes bellyup, leaving his $30 or so in purchased music stuck in a worthless player thats not supported (and possibly not even playable at some point, depending on how strict the DRM and licensing is). Isn't Mr Joe just going to conclude that all these music services suck, and won't "see the light?"

 

[rueyeet]

I would guess that if the rest of the services went belly-up, they'd be able to look around at all the iPod-toting people around them who are still happy with the iTMS, and at about that time a clue would theoretically hit. Or at least, that's what I'd like to have happen.

However, I don't expect the other services to go belly-up that quickly. This is a format war, and I'd bet Microsoft would pump them with enough funding to keep WMA prevalent enough so that they can keep calling Apple's AAC+FairPlay "closed and non-standard". Though it might be interesting if other market forces (like Linux) force MS to withdraw some of the money they throw at money-losers just to stay ubiquitous.

 

[TimDaddy]

When they all go belly up, the stock market will crash, the economy will stall, and we all get to blame the W again!!
Woo-hoo!

But, really, I have a few friends at work who have tried a few music services and complained about the terms. When I tell them about the liberal terms of iTMS, they tell me that they aren't about to go buy a mac just for one program. I then email them a link to Apple.com page that shows the Windows version of iTunes.

 

[slipper]

well i think iTunes and the AAC format is still to deep in the early adopter stages to determine if its gonna prevail.

 

[slipper]

just out of curiosity can anyone provide a statistic showing the percentage of itunes/ipod sales being used my windows users?

 

[ginjg]

Originally posted by slipper
well i think iTunes and the AAC format is still to deep in the early adopter stages to determine if its gonna prevail.

REAL is going to use aac with their own DRM wrapper not wma

 

[Horrortaxi]

I agree with rueyeet except for one thing. I don't think Microsoft will pump failing online music stores with cash, I think Microsoft will buy them outright to obtain whatever technology they have. Then they'll use that foothold to kill off any serious competitors--perhaps they'll let Windows users download unlimited music in WMA format to flood the market and make that the standard. They'll be sued but the ruling (against them) will oddly make them stronger. iTunes will still be around though, and 5% of us will proudly listen to our AAC on our (once again) Mac-only iPods.

 

[ShadowHunter]

Originally posted by slipper
just out of curiosity can anyone provide a statistic showing the percentage of itunes/ipod sales being used my windows users?

It's probably 80 or 90+ percent, considering how few Mac users there are *shrug*