BusinessWeek reports that Dell Inc. will follow in the footsteps of Microsoft, Amazon, and other ambitious tech companies that have launched music download systems designed to end Apple’s near-monopoly.
The new system, which was designed by a former Apple employee named Tim Bucher, will sell itself as a far more open alternative to iTunes. Rather than locking music onto a very limited number of devices, the new system will grant users to zing music back and forth among many different machines from many different producers.
To encourage adoption of the new system, Dell will make it open to all manufacturers and make its money not on music, but on hardware specifically designed to take advantage of the system’s music-zinging capacities.
The idea, which Dell plans to unveil as early as September, is to create a broad standard, more open than Apple’s, that will give people greater choice in how they buy and consume music, movies, and podcasts. Dell will give other companies the software to help establish the standard and will make its money selling PCs and other hardware. “Customers want access to content from a broad variety of sources–how, when, and where they choose,” states CEO Michael Dell.
I’m sure someone will overthrow iTunes at some point, but given how many huge companies have tried and failed, I think you’ve got to give the edge to Apple until someone actually proves it’s vulnerable.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Popularity: 1% [?]
Entries (RSS)