Will Carriers Kill The iTunes Phone?
from the quite-possibly dept
Apple (and Motorola) took a lot of people by surprise earlier this week by announcing plans to put iTunes on a mobile phone, but they may have left out one very important part: figuring out how the carriers get a cut. The wireless carriers are notorious for supporting closed systems, and making sure that they get a cut of any transaction that goes through a mobile phone. While this is a shortsighted move that has slowed down the creation and adoption of wireless services and applications, the carriers still insist on sticking to that plan, under the weird belief that they know best what applications and services subscribers will use (and pay for). So, now, many analysts are pointing out that for all the hype surrounding the mobile iTunes, there's a good chance carriers won't let it run on their phones, unless they somehow get a cut. Of course, for the smart carrier, this is a perfectly good opportunity to open up their offering. Giving subscribers an open platform with plenty of applications and services should generate more interest and allow the carrier to steal customers away from its competitors. Eventually, it will happen, but it may take a while.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
carriers & wireless iTunes
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
why are they in the loop?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: why are they in the loop?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: why are they in the loop?
If you had to use their network (use up your minutes) to to get the music onto your phone they would be happy.
If you are loading tunes directly from your computer (not using up your miuntes), they get nothing and aren’t happy.
They want you to have to dial up iTunes via their network and download the songs (LOTS of minutes used)!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: why are they in the loop?
If you had to use their network (use up your minutes) to to get the music onto your phone they would be happy.
If you are loading tunes directly from your computer (not using up your miuntes), they get nothing and aren’t happy.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: why are they in the loop?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
But
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: why are they in the loop?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: why are they in the loop?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]