It makes me incredibly sad that Apple hasn't already done this. I'm not sure whether Apple is just following their already debunked closed-products strategy as they always have, or if they have actively been trying to get companies like Walmart on board. It doesn't really matter now. The cat is out of the bag. ALL other
legal music download services run by major brands are using Microsoft technology.
I feel like I'm watching the betamax debaucle in deja vu. You cannot bet against the likes of Walmart. You just can't. People want, expect and deserve a choice of music stores.
Apple owns over 50% of the legal download market, but fencing its customers in has made it too easy on Microsoft.
If Apple has been courting the other music stores, it might not be too late. iPod has enormous momentum and they could leverage that. A year down the road though, when these two incompatible standards are confusing and annoying customers, it will definitely be too late.
Just like with Betamax VHS, there will only be room for one general standard. The other standard will have to focus on nice markets like professionals or tech elitists.
What's sad is Apple may be letting too much ride on the HP deal. The HP deal doesn't change the fact that FairPlay and the iPod are closed. I really hope we see more deals soon. Deals may be more important, for the company, than products right now.
Ultimately, iPod should be opened, but I'm not expecting Apple to move all to quickly. It took them 4 generations of iPods to make one that will play paid-for songs on both a registered Mac and a registered PC. In the short term just getting Fairplay into the other music stores MIGHT be enough.
If they don't they may actually compromise FairPlay as a trustworthy Digital Rights Management System. If enough people feel like they are forced to break the DRM by re-ripping their paid songs into an unprotected format, it could compromise Apple's relationships with music companies.
Let's hope the iPod phenomenon buys them enough time to do the right thing: take a leadership role and make Fairplay into the standard that the market needs. Mac Reality Check
