Google To Take On iTunes? 277
An anonymous reader writes 'Multiple sources say Google is preparing to launch Google Audio. According to people familiar with the matter, Google has been securing content from record companies. Is Google about to go head-to-head with Apple's iTunes?'
Re:Google did a few years ago... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Its a Fractal (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple has done very well with the iPhone, but if history is our guide, they did very well with the original Macintosh.
Not any version of history I've seen. The Mac struggled for a while before finding a niche in desktop publishing, where it languished while PC-compatible machines caught up, overtook it and took over the world. The desktop metaphor took over the computing world, but mostly through Windows.
History is no guide, unless you believe the players have learnt nothing from it.
Steve Jobs is too obsessed with removing buttons from mice
Like many commentators, you've missed the point. He is focused on quality, and the vision he has for Apple seems to include removing anything that detracts from that goal. I can't say if he's 'obsessed' as I don't personally know the man.
Back on topic - competition is great. Now that Apple have pushed back the limits on music purchasing and pushed DRM off the table (aided greatly by Amazon), players like Google can step up and provide a music ecosystem similar to iTunes. Hopefully Google will include new features that draw users towards their product, stimulating Apple to work harder to compete.
I hope Google produce something amazing.
Re:Its a Fractal (Score:5, Insightful)
Either way, Apple hates being tied to vendors,
Which is funny to me, as they seem to have no problem tying people to them.
Re:Google did a few years ago... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yep, it's about a music store.
It makes sense for Google to have a content store for their Android phones, and it's clear Apple doesn't want to play nice with competitors (Palm Pre, anyone?). I just hope Google do it so well that they frighten Apple into dropping prices and restrictions.
It's a market that's begging for a little real competition.
What's with the tags? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Seriously - is Google innovative at all? (Score:1, Insightful)
Search engine? There were plenty of search engines before Google came along
Except that they invented a better way of searching that allowed for real results that could not be faked by simply having great meta tags?
Android? Oh look, Apple are doing really well with phones, let's be on the cutting edge and... create a phone
Except that they created a phone with a new type of operating system, simply put a new platform to design on which people would argue is easier to develop on
Google maps? Easy to use but hardly a new concept
I don't know about you but i never get accurate anything on map quest or the like, google did a great job here. also they integrated satellite images before anyone that i can remember. on top of i haven't seen anyone else driving cars around to give a street view of the map either.
Gmail? wow!! how imaginative - a decade after online email they blow everyones minds with, you guessed it... online email
uhh, yea they did blow everyones mind with a simple way of doing email that made sense with a set of tools that makes managing your email easy. i'm finding that you have no idea what google has done
I put forward that on an innovation per IQ point Google is perhaps the most inefficient use of intelligence ever.
wow do some research next time, google designed one of the most efficient servers and OS for their search engine. also the hardware that they developed for it is of their design not someone else. i guess you have never seen how all those "IQ points" developed how they manage all their equipment which was unique and new for data centers. heres a small article on some of it http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/02/googles-data-center-secrets-revealed/
not a fan boy, i am not a "pro-google" person just someone who can't stand ignorant people. (i do not own any mac/apple or android equipment)
i suppose you sir need to learn to google.
Re:Seriously - is Google innovative at all? (Score:5, Insightful)
I put forward that you cannot survive a year without touching/using a google technology. If you truely believe google tech is mediocre.. go a year without google search/mail/reader/youtube/maps/docs/books/code/chrome/images/news/android and of course.. no clicking google ads.
Search engine? There were plenty of search engines before Google came along
Agreed, but why did google become so popular? It was great and very minimal. We didn't want "web portals" filled with ads, news, and junk.. just a simple place to find sites from. Was that innovative? heck no.. was it very intelligent? yes.
Re:Google did a few years ago... (Score:5, Insightful)
Prices may drop, but Apple's philosophy from the beginning was "the store is here for iPod owners, since the other stores were all Microsoft's bitches and we won't pay for a WMA DRM license". In other words, Apple is still very much tied to the hardware, and isn't likely to give it up soon.
On the one hand, the iTunes Store turns a modest income, but it's peanuts compared to the income that the computers, iPods and iPhones generate. Apple might actually be happy to have the iTunes Store become irrelevant if it means people buy more iPods.
Re:What's with the tags? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wait, that came out wrong, I was just watching that horse running off down my garden and thinking about a door that I could do to go and lock.
It isn't about them doing something wrong per se, it is about them being so far reaching in their ability to data mine each and every person that uses their services.
Think what would happen if Microsoft bought them out because they got bored of playing internet billionaires? Or if the government decided that they were a threat to security and absorbed them into itself for our protection. Some thoughts just aren't pretty and that is why some people tag "fuckgoogle".
What's worse is that if you don't voluntarily hand over all this information you are in the minority (or soon will be) and that itself will mark you as a person of interest.
Re:Its a Fractal (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, you can buy music all over the place. But for the vast, vast majority of online music buyers when they think 'I want to buy a song', they think 'iTunes'. Apple (and other independent research firms) put their online music market share at something like 80%. That's certainly not a monopoly in the legal sense, but it is in the practical sense.
Re:Antitrust (Score:3, Insightful)
The first link (sponsored) on the search page for "web browser" is "Try Google's New Browser." The first link (non-sponsored) on the search page for "photo manager" is "Picasa 3: Free download from Google."
I'm sure there are many more, and I'm kind of disturbed. I think that the sponsored links are probably more dangerous for Google than the non-sponsored ones as long as the algorithm used to decide the non-sposored links is fair.
No matter what, these results sure show the dominance of Google.
Spotify not ITunes will be the big competitor (Score:5, Insightful)
Here in Sweden 1 in 5 of the population has a Spotify account. I think Google would do themselves a service by coughing up a huge sum of money and buying Spotify which already has pretty much all music you would want, android, ipod, apple, pc applications, high quality ogg vorbis streams and a very loyal user base.
Spotify is the next big thing, the US just hasn't seen it yet, their business model is great, and their software works really well.
Spotify may not be for sale, but Google has deep pockets and a link up would knock out MS and Apple easily I think.
Re:Its a Fractal (Score:3, Insightful)
I hear what you're saying, but I think Steve Jobs' benevolent dictatorship is what has made Apple so successful. If it wasn't for Jobs being a demanding tyrant, Apple products would be mediocre at best. The guy isn't exactly known for being friendly, but I admire his strive for perfection.
Jobs has outstanding business sense. If he realises something isn't working, he'll change his approach. I don't think he's particularly tied down to any particular path. That's something a lot of commentators miss. The iPhone App Store thing is a constantly evolving beast.
But yeah, competition is good. I wish Google and others all the best.
Re:Its a Fractal (Score:5, Insightful)
You're totally missing the point, and if you ever entered the portable music player business you would crash and burn horribly.
People don't want flashy gadgets with a million and one features which are hard to use. iPods took over the market because they are easy to use, and buying or managing your music is an absolute snap.
Other competitors were free to do the same, but they never did, because they think just like you do: they totally dismiss the power of usability and ease of use. Most people in the world aren't Slashdot geeks.
User interaction design and usability doesn't just apply to portable music players, it applies to just about anything you interact with in everyday life. A lot of people are so used to mediocre engineering and design that they take these frustrations for granted. Apple is a company that spends their time addressing these issues and making things easier for the user, but sadly few other companies do.
Read "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman sometime, it's a real eye opener.
Re:It's a music search feature (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Spotify not ITunes will be the big competitor (Score:3, Insightful)
I had a paid account for a month, then switched back to free as the intrusion of the advertisements was next to nill. I simply don't notice. They hardly ever advertise for products I'd even want anyway; I listen to heavy metal and other alternative music; The amount of times I've had mobile phones (I already have a great phone), pop music (can't stand it) and other useless chod pushed into my ears would be amusing if it didn't cost Spotify every time it happened.
I'd probably go back to the paid subscription if their "Music you may like" feature worked. At the moment, however, after listening to Alestorm, Korpiklaani, Dream Theatre, Prodigy, and Radiohead, I'm being presented with Kanye West, and other mainstream pop artists.
In short, they've made their "free" (ad-supported) service too good.
Re:Its a Fractal (Score:3, Insightful)
Your post clearly explains why ipod is popular. However, the GP just pointed out that "Popular" does not imply "Superior" (a word that was used to describe Apple products)...
If you had a product that was much more popular than all its competitors and which was visually distinct, wouldn't you claim that it was "Superior" too? It's just marketing. Don't sweat over it.
Re:Its a Fractal (Score:3, Insightful)
Giving away the source code wouldn't necessarily eliminate the issue of a malicious app "destroying the ecosystem", as you put it. Apple is never going to allow widespread "sharing" of apps unless they have the finger on them for this very reason.
Apple has always maintained a tight control over their systems, there's absolutely no reason to expect that to change now.
Re:Its a Fractal (Score:2, Insightful)
They are superior, from a usability standpoint. That's the point of the GP. Technically superior, perhaps not, but who cares if I buy a "superior" product I can't or don't want to figure out how to use?
Re:Spotify not ITunes will be the big competitor (Score:3, Insightful)
In short, they've made their "free" (ad-supported) service too good.
Which is exactly why it would be a good fit for Google. The ad-support is where Google makes its money, primarily, so it makes sense. I'm sure if Google would purchase them, they'd be able to fix the poorly directed ad thing very quickly, as I've noticed a reasonably good correlation between the ads presented to me on gmail (when I actually log in via the web rather than a pop reader) and what I'm reading/discussing at the time.
Re:Google did a few years ago... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Please save us Google! (Score:3, Insightful)
I like the fuel economy of Deisel fuel, but my car requires gasoline!!! I'm tired of those restrictive car manufactures telling me what my engine must use and how I can and can't use my own products!
Yes, you do sound as retarded as that statement.
You are using an OS that doesn't show up on the radar as more than a large duck, sorry if they don't support it, you knew they didn't when you bought the thing.
I'm so super pissed that iTunes doesn't run on the OS I wrote, those bastards are restricting my ability to use my devices and using their monopoly in the music player market to crush BitStreamOS!@$!@$ I know its not technically a monopoly or any whever even near it, but I'm going to talk out my ass anyway!@$
Do you realize how retarded these statements sound to anyone outside of your head?
Android will replace the iPhone I'm sure ... just like the Pre or the Storm or whatever the 'iPhone killer' was last week. You just don't get it. Apple does, hence why they own the music player market.