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December 07, 2005

The Impending Death of the Apple iPod

Yesterday I wrote about the death of CDs (well, sort of...). Today I'm writing about the death of the Apple iPod.

Wait a minute? The death of the iPod? Do I mean the same "iPod" as in the sleek, hot-looking little iPod Nano and the innovative very popular video iPod? Do I mean the same iPod as in the ones that are flying off the shelves this holiday season and that will no doubt boost Apple's earning and stock price to record levels?

Yup, I most certainly do.

Tonight I got my first introduction to Real Rhapsody, the unlimited pay-as-you-go music service from Real Networks. And while this might be a bit premature given that I've been a subscriber for about three hours, I'm completely and unabashedly a huge fan. For $9.99/month I get unlimited access to over 1.3 million songs. For that same price I get unlimited access to...10 songs on iTunes. Hmmm...

OK, now you're probably saying "Hey, that's cool and all but I want to take my music with me." That's where Rhapsody To Go comes in. With Rhapsody To Go I can now take any of those 1.3 million songs with me whereever I go. One catch...I can't take them with me if I have an iPod. Apple stubbornly refuses to license its Fairplay DRM and thereby have shut Rhapsody users out of putting their (legally purchased) music on the iPod.

Apple has done the same thing with audio books as well. The only option you have if you want to purchase audio books and put them on an iPod is Audible.com. Legally purchased audio books from Sounds Good, Simply Audiobooks and Jiggerbug won't work. And that's a shame because I think those companies (along with NetLibrary and Overdrive) are offering some very cool innovations in the spoken word audio world.

The funny thing is that this is a bit of deja vu for Apple. They built a walled garden around the Mac back in the 80s and we all know how well that turned out for them. I'm certainly not anti-Apple. I love what Steve Jobs has done with the iPod in terms of promoting portable media. I just think we've moved passed the days of only allowing content to work with your player or your software. People don't want that. The era of darknet is over. The era of lightnet is upon us.

So what does all of this mean? First of all, if Apple doesn't start changing their tune (sorry, bad pun...) soon I think that the relatively more open platforms are going to win out. I don't know a better tip-off of that than this recent blog post from Chris Anderson, editor over at Wired Magazine. Like him, I've come to the conclusion that my next portable device probably won't be an iPod. It'll probably be something like the Zen Micro pictured above.

Second, if the open platforms start to gain more ground than the rules change a lot. The iTunes/iPod/Audible dominance in the spoken word audio market changes significantly. Certainly Audible is somewhat insulated because their service works with many non-iPod devices, but they will face increased competition. Hey, that's what happens when monopolies are dissolved.

I loaded up on all the Bob Dylan songs I could find earlier this evening. I really enjoyed being able to go back through all the old stuff that I would never have bought on iTunes but were now a click away with Rhapsody. The one that seemed most apropos for the occasion? Well, it goes a little something like this.

The line it is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is Rapidly fadin'. And the first one now Will later be last

Yup, the times they sure are a-changing... I just hope that Jobs and the gang realize that before it's too late...again.

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