Shazam
If I get one more e-mail about Shazam, I’m going to explode!
What’s worse, hating the iPhone cult or secretly wanting to join?
Seems like Apple’s winning this war. Haters said the computers were too expensive, incompatible…but now the haters are a cult, because everybody’s shifted to the other side, Macintosh computer sales are through the roof, all because of the iPod and iTunes. Computers are supposed to be complicated, daunting, they’re supposed to display incomprehensible error messages, they’re not supposed to WORK!
But iTunes does. As does the iPod. This is what the labels can never seem to understand! Let’s just license somebody else, we’ll bring Apple to its knees! I love Rhapsody in conception, but the interface sucks. "Intuitive" is not a word that comes to mind. As for Amazon… You can download an app that will install what you buy in your iTunes library… Or, since you’re afraid of computers anyway, you can pay a smidgen more, and just buy the track from iTunes and there’s no additional software to purchase, it just SHOWS UP! Furthermore, if you’re bothering to pay for music, you don’t really care that much about the copy protection. It’s the people who are STEALING music that truly care about the DRM. I’m saying it should be gone from the iTunes Store, but that’s not the major issue holding digital music sales back, rather it’s the PRICE! Since the store allows you to cherry-pick, only get what you want, you’ve got to lower the bar, encourage people to buy more/experiment by making tracks cheaper (it couldn’t be any easier on iTunes). But the major labels want to fight some war conceived a decade ago, raising prices and bringing Apple to its knees. If Steve Ballmer’s Microsoft can’t bring Eric Schmidt’s Google to its knees, what are the odds that Doug Morris can bring Steve Jobs to his knees? NONEXISTENT! And isn’t it interesting that Schmidt is on Apple’s board!
Don’t fight wars you can’t win. That just wastes money. And invest in R&D, don’t rest on your laurels, otherwise you could be Palm… How much life is left in THAT company? As for RIM… Phenomenal e-mail service and that’s it. I’ve got 3G capability on my BlackBerry but surfing is not easy, it’s something you only do if necessary. But on an iPhone, it’s FUN to surf! And now you can do it at high speed, anywhere! (Well, not anywhere, but in major metropolises.)
And the problem here is that although the mainstream media is going on about Apple’s server meltdown of last Friday, lamenting the absence of cut and paste and an upgraded camera, the legions of iPhone users are evangelizing 24/7. I know, because they keep on e-mailing me!
Now it’s about the App Store. Most specifically, this App, Shazam. You hear a song on the radio you don’t know…you hold up your iPhone and it tells you what it is and remembers it! This is what satellite radio promised would revolutionize the sphere, but Sirius implements lamely, it can take forever for the titles to come up, if at all, for $12.95 a month, and Apple and Shazam deliver FOR FREE!
While you’re debating the "New Yorker" cover, those truly driving the culture don’t care and are invested in the future, not blame. I’m not telling you the iPhone will rule the future, but something like it will. And right now, it looks like the iPhone will win, because of the underlying software, the OPERATING SYSTEM!
Remember a year ago, when the iPhone came out, and it was the talk of every party? Now, 3G Web-surfing and endless apps will be entertaining the throng. You’ll want one.
And I want one, but I’m not switching. Because first and foremost it’s got to be a phone, and AT&T sucks. Just like Walter Mossberg said:
"One side benefit to 3G is that in some areas, voice coverage improves. At my neighborhood shopping center, where the first iPhone got little or no AT&T service, the iPhone 3G registered strong coverage. But I still found that calls regularly broke up on some major streets. In New York City, riding in a taxi along the Hudson, one important call was dropped three times on the new iPhone. Finally, I borrowed a cheap Verizon phone and got perfect reception."
