Comment The price of offering shortcuts. (Score 0) 563
Apple applied the same principle for their computers into the Ipod: Easier is better, easier is more expensive. Then, they created a device that anyone could own and play music without physical media, only files.
Sounds beautiful and for a while it worked, many were drawn into the PMP universe and as any other unknown territory, they let Apple take care of them: Just pay there, plug here, listen, repeat.
Nobody bought an Ipod to save on personal entertainment, it was the design, the looks, the software, the quality, but the prime on the price always was accepted, after all, wouldn't making all these so accessible and pretty cost a lot of money?
Three years later, turns out, the magic is going away, because after all, economics will always win at the end of the day, defeating aesthetics, fads, trends and loyalties.
Now, the market offers alternative devices, smaller, prettier, more efficient and above all, cheaper.
The same naïve buyer paying a premium to get a buy-plug-play player now sees that there are alternatives. It has learned that there are better/faster/easier ways to get DRM-free music. Ipod pushed the "Do it easier" too far this time and now, they are seeing that there is more to it. It works if what you will do easier doesn't become dull or ineffective.
The real question here is this: Can Apple bring something new (besides more HD space, bigger screens) that again, challenges the current way to do things and overcomes its cumbersome procedures successfully enough to justify its higher price?
Music player + telephone = Done
Music player + video player = done
WiFi music Player = Almost done (Zune)
On Demand Digital Content - That's it, you may have the chance, ipod.
Sounds beautiful and for a while it worked, many were drawn into the PMP universe and as any other unknown territory, they let Apple take care of them: Just pay there, plug here, listen, repeat.
Nobody bought an Ipod to save on personal entertainment, it was the design, the looks, the software, the quality, but the prime on the price always was accepted, after all, wouldn't making all these so accessible and pretty cost a lot of money?
Three years later, turns out, the magic is going away, because after all, economics will always win at the end of the day, defeating aesthetics, fads, trends and loyalties.
Now, the market offers alternative devices, smaller, prettier, more efficient and above all, cheaper.
The same naïve buyer paying a premium to get a buy-plug-play player now sees that there are alternatives. It has learned that there are better/faster/easier ways to get DRM-free music. Ipod pushed the "Do it easier" too far this time and now, they are seeing that there is more to it. It works if what you will do easier doesn't become dull or ineffective.
The real question here is this: Can Apple bring something new (besides more HD space, bigger screens) that again, challenges the current way to do things and overcomes its cumbersome procedures successfully enough to justify its higher price?
Music player + telephone = Done
Music player + video player = done
WiFi music Player = Almost done (Zune)
On Demand Digital Content - That's it, you may have the chance, ipod.
