Recently Microsoft launched their answer to Apple’s iTunes music service, called ‘playsforsure‘. The word around the coffee machine is that Microsoft will fail in this endeavor, mostly because they offer nothing over what iTunes + the iPod has, save that their service will run on more devices.
Over at Engadget, Ross Rubin has a wonderful column that takes on this topic, and puts out some great commentary…
The only choice that consumers really care about in digital music is choice in content. After all, consumers don’t pick their cable or satellite TV plan provider based on what kind of set-top box they’ll get. They choose based on the kind and number of channels available. And here again, no Windows Media-based store offers a significant choice advantage over the iTumes Music Store; device platform market share means nothing since, unlike with software, there is practically no incremental cost to support a player with a particular piece of content.
I know people who are waiting for Pez to make music players (something like that). So having another source for players doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me.
There’s something unappealing about totally transparent marketing ploys.
Also, there’s no getting around it: iPods are sexy.
The only choice that consumers really care about in digital music is choice in content.
Not just digital music, either. That’s been true literally since the days of Thomas Edison.