Julian Ivan-Alexander

U.S. Handset Subsidies to Be Replaced by Something Worse?

Are you nuts? Subsidised handset sales are the norm in Europe. You really need to get out more.

Mobile Players Take On Apple iPhone With Flat-Rate Mobile Music Service

They just don't get it. People don't want to rent their music. They want to own it. Its personal to them. The studios are crazy for encouraging their customers to view music as a commodity with no inherent value rather than a valuable and personal possession. This will go the same way as every other similar service.
There are 500M iTunes users worldwide already, with 1M copies of iTunes being downloaded every day. The tracks people have in their iTunes library work with: PCs, Macs, iPods, and iPhones - and many other devices too.
The same will not be true for this service, which will likely be limited to playback on the phone only, or if you're "lucky," then some terrible music jukebox software that's bound to be PC only.
Doomed to failure, and all the more embarrassingly so for being backed by the world+mother.

Sony to Challenge Apple -- Will PSP Video Downloads Bear Fruit?

How does this challenge Apple? WIll Sony Connect tracks play on iPods? On Macs? In iTunes?? How many PSPs are there? 20m. How many iPods? 100m.

Sony Connect downloads will be great for users of Sony products. They won't create more competition for iTunes. Consumers buy on hardware, not download services. Great news if you have a PSP. No competition for Apple otherwise.