Apple Outsmarts The Competition
Apple CEO Steve Jobs issued an open letter calling for the entertainment industry to move to the open MP3 format.
He wrote "If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music."
"Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat."
The letter shows that Apple hasn't lost its strategic, competitive, and consumer-driven edge.
For years Apple opponents have complained about Apple's proprietary FairPlay DRM. They have asserted that FairPlay is an unfair vehicle that enables Apple to maintain its industry supremacy. Once files are bought on iTunes for iPod players they are not playable in other MP3 players.
Jobs knows that the Apple brand and product design, and not Fairplay, are the keys to its success. With this bold public move Apple shifts the target for both consumer dissatisfaction with DRM and industry dissatisfaction about its virtual monopoly squarely on the major recording labels.
What I find short-sighted on the part of ALL critics of Apple and Fairplay is that they don’t also complain about Microsoft and PlaysforSure. The Apple critics seem to act as if its big bad Apple as the only “bad guy” in the online music world. People may question Steve Job’s motives all day. But, in the end it boils down to the fact that he is advocating for a DRM-free (at least for music) world. Who cares what his motives are.
Apple wouldn’t use MP3 for it’s DRM-free music. It’s heavily invested in the MPEG4, AAC format, which can also play on other digital music players.