Microsoft's Monopoly vs Apple's 'Monopoly'

There's been some talk in the media that since the EU has sought to tackle Microsoft's abuse of market dominance on the Desktop Operating System market, Apple should be next for its dominance in mobile digital music.

This, in my opinion, is crazy and this is why; Choice. Apple's so-called monopoly has been achieved through the choice of people wanting its products. Microsoft's monopoly has been achieved through people having to use their products where no choice was offered.

Let me put this another way, if you were to walk into a high street electronic store or a computer store with a view to purchasing a digital music player, you would find choice. Lots of choice. There'd be so many different makes and models of digital music player from which to choose that your head would spin. You'll find music players by Fujitsu, Sanio and Sony (to name but a few). There'd be a bunch of cheaper ones with a brand you've never heard of before. You'll find players that can handle video made by Creative and yes, you'll find media players by Apple. What you'll see is that you have choice, you can choose which player you want and guess what, they will all play MP3 files.

But what if you were looking to buy a computer? Granted, you could walk into a store and find computers made by HP, Lenovo and Sony and many more. Is that choice? Kind of. But what about the Operating System? Sure, you can choose between Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Enterprise and so on, but the bottom line is this, you will be buying a Microsoft operating system. Sure, if you ask around and make the effort, you can get yourself a Linux box and maybe even a Mac, but let's look at the shop window; All you can have is Windows.

Whereas you can choose your music player, you can't choose your Desktop Operating System. And this is the difference between Microsoft's monopoly and Apple's 'monopoly'.

But how did we get here?

Microsoft got here by illegal means. They bullied companies into not including other Operating Systems on their computers thus making sure that the only Operating System that could breathe was Windows. Anything else suffocated through lack of exposure. Ever heard of BeOS? There we go then. Windows succeeded by becoming the default installation on almost every computer sold. Not many people actually choose Microsoft Windows because, as far as they can see, Microsoft Windows is all there is.

How did the iPod become so dominant? Apple released it, marketed it and people chose it. It's that simple. Apple didn't have to stop others from making music players and it didn't have to stop shops from selling them. In other words, Apple made a media player that people wanted more than the others, hence their market lead. If Apple were to start making media players that people didn't like, people could move on and buy something else instead. Apple doesn't own the market through bribery and corruption, it owns that market by appealing to the materialistic values promoted in today's modern media - in other words, Apple owns the market because it makes things that people want.

But the EU is worried because Apple is locking people into the iPod. They say that there's no means for people who use iTunes to use their music with other devices. That's not strictly true. I play my iTunes music on my Nokia smartphones by burning the music to a CD ROM and ripping it back in MP3 or unprotected AAC. It's my music, I listen to it on my phone and my iPod. What's the EU talking about?

I really don't see what there is to investigate regarding Apple and it's alleged monopoly. Nobody forced me to buy an iPod, I could have just as easily bought a Windows Media Compatible player (that would be compatible with Windows Media, for a while, before Microsoft changed the format without giving me a path to upgrade for free - a la Plays For Sure), but I wanted an iPod.

Yes, Apple has a massive chunk of the mobile digital media market. Ok, it's a hugely massive chunk and it is the biggest fish in the pond, but it got there by the market (that's us) choosing to put it there, not because people were forced or tricked into buying Apple products.

How much of a stranglehold does Apple have in order to force the market to do what it wants? Ask NBC who have decided on their own volition to not work with Apple and instead work with Amazon. Nobody stopped them and people are as free to buy NBC products from Amazon as they were when NBC were in iTunes.... Well, except that NBC video will no longer play on Apple Macs because Microsoft doesn't support protected Windows Media on the Mac..... Wait a minute!

So, EU dudes, before you complain about Apple's media monopoly, take a look at the BBC's iPlayer, ITV.COM, Amazon's video service, Channel 4's 4oD and tell me where you see Apple's monopoly. Then pop down Currys or Dixons and count how many music players support protected WMV and WMA compared to protected AAC. If there is a lockout monopoly going on, you want to be knocking on doors in Redmond, not Cupertino.

iPod Thoughts and Why The iPod Touch Isn't an iPod

While it's encouraging to read that even the most hardened Zune fanatics are accepting the rather excellent advance that Apple has made, I'm still struggling to fully 'get' the iPhone/iPod Touch.

I know that the user interface is phenominally sleek, but an interface doesn't make a device, does it?

Maybe it does, because I know that I'm itching to get my hands on one of the new iPod Nanos or an iPod Classic, so maybe it's just personal preference where I don't get my kicks out of touch screen interfaces.

And so I find myself really encouraged at how Apple has actually progressed a 'platform' and put in useful functionality that people can apply to their lives as opposed to functionality that puts a tick in the box but has no practical use (anyone want a squirt?).

And so my thoughts on the range as it now stands begin with the Shuffle which is a wonder of modern media. It's tiny, everybody accepts that it has no special features or functionality but still, there's something about it that makes it desirable. Oh, and I am a big fan of pastel colours.

I see the Nano and the Classic as being of the same ilk now that the only thing that really separates them is capacity. Sure, the Nano uses Solid State memory and the Classic a Hard Drive, but the user isn't going to see that when he (or she) looks to see how much space is available.

The update of the Classic's interface really does give the Zune a kick in the pants because Apple have managed to add elegance without adding the risk of having unreadable text or unecessary 'whizz-bang' waiting. In my opinion, the Classic is the greatest iPod line because it does what the iPod has done since the first days; store loads of songs (and videos, and photos, and contacts, and appointments, and podcasts). I have a 30Gb 5G iPod and I think it's the bee's knees, but the new Classic takes that sleek form factor and adds an interface that makes the user feel special without abandoning the original ideals of what has become an icon of digitial media. It's functional, it's simple, it works.

The iPod Touch is, in my opinion, not an iPod any more than the Motorola ROKR was an iPod. The iPod Touch is just an iPhone without the Phone (maybe it's an 'i' then?). This is somewhere I think Apple may have got the branding a little wrong because if the iPod Touch is an iPod, then why isn't the iPhone a iPod Talk?

As I see it, the iPod Touch may be elegant, but it's not simple and in some ways, it's muddied the water between the Classic and the Nano in that the Nano was a cut-down iPod because of it's lack of capacity and so is the iPod Touch. It can browse, it can buy, it can organise, but the iPod 'part' of the iPod Touch is a cut-down iPod; it's a rather limited PDA with cut-down iPod functionality. I think that this is a bit of a bad thing and I won't be wanting one, not because of some philosophical ideal regarding what an iPod should be, but because I have no use for it an iPod Touch.

The Classic is what I really, really want for Christmas (and the hints are already being dropped). I would really like a Nano in the meantime and a Shuffle is cute... I wouldn't say no to an iPod Touch, but if I had to choose between that and my current 5G 20Gb iPod, I think the 5G would win.

Monkeyboy and the Zune

Apparently, someone got sacked for this, which is a shame since it's so funny!