| Sunday, August 8, 2004 |
20:00 - Busy little bee
http://www.drunkenblog.com/drunkenblog-archives/000313.html
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I haven't even read this article all the way through yet, but I can already tell that it's a corker. Sent by Evariste, it's a long and thoughtful look at where Apple's going with the iPod, iTunes, and their associated DRM—all gleaned from clues such as Apple's reaction to RealNetworks reverse-engineering FairPlay for their own music store, and product launches like AirPort Express and the upcoming H.264 codec in Tiger. Some have speculated about in-home cross-device video streaming akin to what AirTunes does now with music (to me it sounds far-fetched until the day that a Hollywood movie can be stored and transmitted with as little impact on the storage medium and the transport infrastructure as an MP3 does today—which will be some years from now to say the least); but this article takes the speculation quite a bit farther.
Apple is playing towards that exact same endgame, but with a twist: they're creating a new light-DRM platform that is riding on top of everyone else's platform. iMacs, Windows, mobile phones, everything. Google is also creating a platform riding on the backs of other platforms... except its based around becoming the access point for all things internet. Apple wants that, but for DRM content.
They weren't kidding around with their vision of the computer as a hub for your digital life, they just forgot to mention that the hub will come with a lock. And guess who owns the keys?
In other words, just as Apple seems to have been quietly bringing features to market that Microsoft has at the same time only dispensed rhetoric about (.NET/.Mac, Longhorn/Spotlight), likewise it would appear that they've got their own version of Palladium in mind, or something like it. Something, with any luck, that is more geared toward the discriminating technophile consumer than stapled unwilling onto the devices bought by the technological have-nots. Apple's strategy is still all about the "creators" rather than the "consumers"—or at least about those who view multimedia content as a creation to be reproduced with the greatest respect for its integrity, rather than those who passively absorb content from the comfort of the couch.
It's an interesting attitude to take, and thoroughly founded in Apple's unique, quirky vision of what kind of gear sells and to whom. Who knows whether it'll work? But they've certainly been hitting lately like Barry Bonds in a homerun derby, and Apple does have a demonstrated ability to capitalize on momentum.
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Brian Tiemann
