Quote:
Originally Posted by tirsales
No, they actually didn't. I know a drekload of people who didn't use iTunes for DRM-reasons (including me). And most people (I know) didn't accept DRM - they just circumvented it. So .. where's the DRM acceptance in that?
AND the iTunes software is crap - the system would be so much more valuable if it wasn't tied to this software...
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Actually, despite everything Job may say, the first reason why Apple used DRM with iTunes was to make sure people would buy ipods. If you don't have an ipod, the whole iTunes+Mac/Windows+ipod = buying music and uploading it to your player is so easy that even a brain dead moron can do it breaks down. Combine that with the ipod's flood of adds showing how cool it is to own one of the Apple's players.
That you needed an ipod had nothing to do with genuine technical limitations, Apple designed it that way. Interstingly enough, it did show that if you offer ease of use and resonable prices (although I personally still think what they charge for a song is
way unreasonable), people will buy from you.
They recently opened their offer because of: 1. Customers' pressure, and 2. The feeling they have more or less cornered the market as much they can hope to.
They also did another very interesting thing. Ten years ago, Apple had rabid fanboys, people who didn't give damn about their products and those who thought them nice but too expensive for them. Along with the whole ipod mess described above came a new category of persons who realized Apple had an even worse monopolistic behavior than Microsoft, doing everything it could to get vendor lock in. And despite Job's reality bending field, this is BAD for Apple's glitzy image.
Hence the mp3 offer.