News
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Well, seems you can buy Napster stock now......wonder if that's a good thing. The parent company Roxio sold all its other stuff and is now going to concentrate on Napster.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/04/napster_trades_naps/
Considering that Napster has gone from innovative to illegal and now to being a legal entity, I'd say there should be a few pages in the history books about it. If it continues to last, then it may very well get its own chapter. However, it does seem that it will have a hard time competing with Apple, whose iTunes is just eating the market alive. Last I looked, the iPod had majority dominance in the HDD mp3 player market in the US.....something like 82%. First they get you to buy and iPod. Then they get you hooked on iTunes. Lastly, it seems that Apple is ready to unveil a low-cost, sub $500, iMac in the next few months called "Think Secret." (edit note: the machine isn't called ThinkSecret....that's the website that broke the news.....sorry)
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20441
So, it seems that Apple has a grand plan of slowly converting people to Macs. I'm about to convert myself, whenever I get the cash. Who would have thought that market dominance in hard drive based mp3 players can lead o increase in platform penetration on the desktop and laptop markets. But as the way things go, it seems Apple can pull it off. They won't be dominant in the desktop or laptop market, but they will slowly gain a little more ground. PCs are still going to be around and Microsoft will still be ruler of the operating system for the general public, but Apple will definitely gain a larger audience.
