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Apple’s Jobs warns of ‘greedy’ record companies
Apple CEO Steve Jobs today called the major music labels “greedy” for considering a hike in the price of songs on iTunes and warned that such a move would drive users back to piracy.
“If they want to raise the prices, it means that they are getting a little greedy,” Jobs told reporters before the opening of Apple Expo in Paris. “We’re trying to compete with piracy, we’re trying to pull people away from piracy and say, ‘You can buy these songs legally for a fair price,’” he said. “But if the price goes up a lot, they’ll go back to piracy. Then everybody loses.”
Meanwhile, Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president of Apple’s iPod division, said the company was not planning to add radio features to the iPod because there was not enough demand for it.
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21
Homescoop-
Great post!
A radio tuner is the ultimate ‘shuffle’. I often get tired of everything I have on my iPod mini and would love to be surprised by listening to the radio. Apple had it right when they tried to push the idea of keeping your music random, but they limited their notion to the handful of songs a Shuffle could hold. The radio is exactly what I need sometimes.
Good point about podcasting being nothing more than AM stuff, but the obvious reason Apple loves it, is because it increases your reliance on the iPod.
Posted by Talking Madness in Los Angeles on September 21, 2005 at 12:53 AM (PDT)
22
Uhhhh…
No demand for radio? What do we need to do pay for a banner in times square announcing that we, the users of iPod products would like to have a radio in our iPod?
Personally, I say it should not only have an AM/FM tuner in it… it should also have XM capabilities. And should still be the same size device as they’re currently making.
And if Apple really wants to think that the end users dont want these features… well they’re allowed to think what they want, but its been known for some time now that Napster is in talks with XM and Samsung to produce an mp3 player that will play XM radio. Better yet, while you’re listening to the XM, you can mark the song you hear as something that you’d like to have… and when you go home and sync your player it will download that song for you.
Wake up Mr. Jobs… you’re starting to lose sight of the game again. I’m a windows user. The iPod is the first product I’ve ever owned with the Apple logo on it. Lets remember that there are lots of people like me out there… and try to stay on the new wave here. Dont get too comfortable. Others will take advantage of your comfort.
Posted by Mike on September 21, 2005 at 4:24 AM (PDT)
23
Um, he didn’t say “no demand” for radio. He said “not enough” demand. Apple has probably done the market research and found that very few want this feature. I think most of those “very few” visit this website.
Posted by Gary on September 21, 2005 at 6:48 AM (PDT)
24
Jobs knows greed… Look at the price of Apple’s Ipod accessories. $80 to purchase a dock, usb cable and charger for my new Nano…get real! Apple’s cost for these components…$10-$20? The charger used to come with ipods. What a joke!
Posted by Coprock on September 21, 2005 at 12:09 PM (PDT)
25
Coprock-
Well put. Here are more examples of greed:
Standard warranties that have only 90 days of support to get customers to fork over another $349 on the purchase price of a PowerBook for a decent warranty…
Monitors that start at $799…
$300 for an extra gig of ram on an iMac…
$199 for an AirPort base station which is actually nothing more than a $40 Linksys router…
Apple makes great products, but Jobs is in no position to accuse anyone of greed.
Posted by Talking Madness in Los Angeles on September 21, 2005 at 8:33 PM (PDT)
26
“Jesus, what is it with people and the complete lack of a brain??” -Code Monkey
Why do you insist on insulting people?
All these comments do is turn into a debating forum.
I think some people on here aren’t looking at both sides of the story, their target market. None of us know, either, their price for the product and how they portray their company to be top-of-the-line.
All of these people whining about the iPod and yet it DOMINATED the music market.
Interesting.
Posted by NawdaKh on September 22, 2005 at 1:31 AM (PDT)
27
In response to those who wonder how to fit batteries in an iPod nano—you might have to make it a little thicker but as thin as Palm Pilots are, original they ran off of AAAs, so it is possible to keep it near the same dimensions.
Posted by Jack on September 22, 2005 at 10:23 PM (PDT)
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