More About Apple's Music Store

Wired is reporting that some analysts are saying that Apple's Music Store may be coming too late to be successful in the Windows market.

Yet now, some analysts say that while iTunes for Windows may be just the thing for fans, it may be coming too late for the broader market. There are already similar services for Windows users, such as MusicMatch, already entrenched and another called BuyMusic. File-swapping service Napster has resurrected itself as a pay service, now under a parent company, Roxio.

"They're going to have a serious problem with the Windows community," said Rob Enderle, principal of market research firm the Enderle Group. "If they could have gone there first, they could have carved out a beachhead."

A couple things on the subject.

First, analysts said the same thing about the iPod, yet the player has been tremendously successful. Being late to the party isn't the worst thing in the world if you've created a compelling product. The question isn't about timing, but whether Apple will have created an integrated, compelling product that brings the same level of satisfaction to Windows users that it has to Mac OS users.

Because, secondly, all the Windows based services have been marginal successes at best. Apple's Music Store was more successful than any of the subscriptions services while serving a much smaller market.

That isn't to say that I think the Music Store is going to be a sure success; I do think, though, that there is an opportunity on the Windows side to make an integrated, reasonably priced service with consistent, reasonable use policies. If Apple has done that, it will be successful in the market regardless of the tardiness of their entry.

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Posted by zombyboy at October 14, 2003 09:47 AM | TrackBack