The Guardian, London
It's a hard question for many Apple fans to ask, but the music industry is asking it nonetheless: what is going to supersede the iPod? Confident and cool as the white icon is in its domination of the digital download market, other gadgets are starting to muscle in on its territory.
From one of the many music mobile phones being launched, to Sony's Playstation Portable (PSP) and other digital audio players -- the iPod's reign is looking rocky. Or is it? MusicTank, a UK music industry thinktank, recently held a debate to tackle this theory. I Came, I Saw, iPod -- What's Next? put the negatives of portable audio players -- poor interoperability, limited battery life and the restraints of digital rights management -- against those of mobile phones: burdens of storage, functionality and cost, to see which format could soon be singing its swansong.
PHOTO: EPA
Technology columnist Charles Arthur opened the debate with a damning speech on mobile phones and the download space. "Can I store my entire album collection on my mobile phone? No. Can I download tracks quickly and easily? No, 3G isn't offering that yet. Can I access my music in a couple of clicks? No," he said.
"The mobile companies do win on payment -- people are used to buying ringtones on their mobile and having that charged to their phone bill, [and] the same system can work for downloads. But anything else -- including navigation of the content, the price of the actual songs because of the licensing madness that is going on with the various formats, transferability backwards and forwards between a PC and mobile phone, especially the question of backing up -- I think they will lose," he said.
The reach of the mobile industry, however, and its potential audience is far greater than any of the music download platforms, said Steve Mayall, MusicAlly mobile and wireless analyst.
"It took the iPod four years to sell about 20 million but you look at the growth of mobile phones and it just completely obliterates that," he said. "The text message market is bigger than the whole music community globally."
Numbers are one thing, but customer satisfaction is another, and more operations on a mobile can mean less reliability. Michael Bull, senior lecturer in media and film studies at the University of Sussex, said: "My research shows 25 percent of iPod users don't like their phones, [often because] they don't always work well."
"Phones can play music, but it doesn't mean people will want to listen to music on them," he said.
The idea of control and privacy is important to a music lover, and both these things are offered by the iPod.
"To some extent, listening to music is about listeners immersing themselves and hopefully not being disturbed. You get a form of control by using an iPod, which mobile phones destroy as soon as someone else wants to phone you. It becomes interruptive,"Bull said.
Mobiles will also have to offer comparable storage to an iPod -- as yet, only the upcoming Nokia N91 gets close.
"While the technology might catch up eventually, [mobile companies] are running out of time because Apple are also moving forward. A wireless iPod is increasingly likely. A video iPod, too," Arthur said.
He thinks the well-designed, media-rich PSP, with its large harddisk storage, will prove more of a contender to the iPod. But it, too, has drawbacks, such as its bulkier size and incompatibility with the popular iTunes Music Store.
Barney Wragg, Universal's eLabs senior vice president, argued that Apple's focus on presentation and making their product work well holds the key.
"If there's one thing that Apple showed us, it's that technology isn't the important thing," Wragg said. "Apple have succeeded because of style and consumer experience."
Wragg thinks television may be the next digital music format.
"Sky and others will introduce broadband-capable set-top boxes capable of supporting music sales," he said. "But these services will only work if I can transfer my purchases to my iPod."
Convergence would be essential if the suggestion of a "celestial jukebox" was to work, too. Mayall argued that music could be sold as a commodity, like water or power, through a subscription model and streamed to multiple devices with always-on access. But, as Bull said: "If you can access everything, you can't choose anything," pointing to the success of the iPod Shuffle, which takes the hard work out of song selection.
The final choice will be with the consumer and which format they feel is the best to store and transport their music. For now, the iPod is definitely the Apple of their eye.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been