iTunes Store langt foran Amazon

Selvom hele pladebranchen forsøgte at ødelægge iTunes Store i det forgangne år, ved at give mulighed for DRM-fri downloads til hvem som helst, undtagen Apple, så dominerer Apple fortsat så kraftigt, at det må gøre ondt, især på Amazon, men også på de kræfter i branchen, der bare lader til at blive ved med at hade Apple.

via mediamac.comon.dk – iTunes Store langt foran Amazon.

Kan det måske skyldes at Amazon endnu ikke har snøvlet sig sammen til at få forhandlet aftaler på plads uden for USA? Det er da klart at iTunes er større end Amazon, når man tænker på at Apple dækker det dobbelte antal potentielle brugere.

The record companies are stupid

I read this on MacRumors today (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/11/19/apple-negotiating-more-drm-free-music-for-iphones/)

Despite Apple’s willingness to sell DRM-free music, the other major record labels have withheld this ability from the company in an effort to reduce iTunes’ marketshare in digital music downloads. The biggest beneficiary appears to be Amazon who currently offers DRM-free digital downloads from all four major music studios.

The stupidity of this is of cause that if you, like me, don’t live in the US, then the Amazon music store isn’t available. The reason that Apple dominate is the fact that they are the only company who actually care enough to talk to the rights holders in multiple countries.

Until Apple is allowed to sell DRM-Free music, you can use Requiem: http://spiceweasel.dk/blog/2008/10/removing-itunes-drm/

Is Apple rising their prices?

It seems that I wasn’t the only one who noticed that the prices for the new Apple laptops seemed to have gone up. In this discussion on digg.com: digg.com/apple/Apple_introduces_new_MacBook_Pro, people in the UK, Australia and New Zealand all noticed price increases.

During the last few months the US dollar have increase in value, so it would make seens that the prices are a bit higher, but not as much as they apparently see in some countries. It shouldn’t matter anyway, Apple didn’t lower prices when the dollar did badly, so why should they raise it when the dollar do better?

My guess is that the new manufactoring technic for the new laptops is a bit more expensive than the old one, but for some reason that doesn’t seem to influence the US prices. Listening to Leo Laportes MacBreak Weekly I was a bit annoyed that they didn’t comment on the new pricing, but I guess that is due to the fact that the US prices are more reasonable, although still a bit high.

If they don’t lower the prices, then this will hurt the sales, at least that my take on it. They already lost one, potentially two sales on me.