This Week in Smartphone Schadenfreude, April 17th Edition - Phone different

While WMExperts.com was all over the WinMob news this week doubtless yet another iterative handset or 3rd party patch for missing OS functionality, I really couldnt follow it after exposure to Microsoft “leaked” “internal” “moral-booster” video for the troops. Blind and deaf, yet unmercifully not amnesia-tic, Im left to wonder why they insist on releasing things the world can never un-experience?

Patents Pondered: An AT&T-less iPhone World? - Phone different

Right now, when you pick up your iPhone, slide to unlock, and tap the Stocks widget, you get relatively up-to-date (within 20 min.) quotes. Right now, when you pick up your iPhone, slide to unlock, and tap the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, you get a list of songs you can flick-scroll through and tap to purchase through your iTunes account. Come June, you’ll be able to do similar with the App Store.

In a different world, similar functionality would have existed via an “iCarrier” Store. Unlike traditional MVNOs, however, the patent filing indicates Apple may not have bought minutes in bulk from an MNO and simply resold them to iPhone users. Rather, they proposed a model combining the previously mentioned Stocks widget’s near realtime price quoting with the iTunes Wi-Fi Store’s (or App Store’s) near instant transactional processing and purchasing system.

With this system a (presumably WebObjects-based) server would store up-to-date rate information for all regional, affiliated networks and then select whichever provided the best option at the moment, or — in an even more utopian service — allow the end-user to select for themselves as simply and easily as buying a Tune or downloading an App.

Thurrott is back to his unfortunate blog-baiting ways. (Which I guess work, right?). This, of course, in no way proves lock-in accusations about Apple. They’ve shown an eagerness to sell unlocked, DRM-free music. The recording industry, however, won’t allow it, preferring to give DRM-free music exclusively to iTunes’ competitors in an effort to offset Apple’s growing power base. Which is fine, and their right, and perhaps even a smart thing to do if you don’t care about your consumers (which, historically, they don’t).

So rather than play pundit and distort data, how about putting the lock-in accusations where they really belong, bokay Paul?

Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market - SuperSite Blog

This proves the lock-in accusations about Apple are correct, of course, and that Apples strategy is both brilliant and effective. Were at the point where complaining because a song will only work on an iPod is just about as ludicrous as complaining that a software application is limited because it runs “only” on Windows as Apple promoters like David Pogue often do. The problem I have with iTunes content, however, has little to do with lock-in, though its a concern. Im more worried about quality most iTunes tracks are in a lowly 128 Kbps format. Compatibility/portability is secondary to that, and would be less of an issue if more music there was at least unprotected and could be transcoded to a better format with no loss in quality. Which is impossible with 128 Kbps tracks, period.

NBC Wants Back on iPhone + More Money + Content Blocking

NBC is currently turning down $1.99 per 22-44 minutes of The Office or Battlestar Galactica. 2 bucks for content previously aired on FREE television, which can be easily, legally and much to their chagrin and previously failed efforts to block it taped or PVRd. Theyre turning down that EXTRA money because they want MORE of it, and they want iTunes to prevent you from, say, shifting that FREE content from your PVR or media center to your iPhone without paying MORE of that EXTRA money?

Dare I suggest the only reason the pirates exist is because of Big Medias greed and short sightedness. The minute they charge fair prices for fair use, given the low barrier of entry and elegance of use of iTunes interface, the piracy disappears for everyone but zealots. Never mind the marketing value of downloads alone — The Office being a prime example.

iPhone Assaulting Microsoft’s Dominance? - Phone different

Now the article seems more than a little optimistic to me; the level of entrenchment Microsoft enjoys will not easily be moved much less displaced, but Apple is definitely gaining momentum and, most importantly, mindshare. Even if the MacBook Air, mentioned in the article at 3 pounds, has many similar Windows-based competitors, the author either doesn’t know, doesn’t care, or is deliberately ignoring them, and any which way you slice that, it shows how well and how deeply Apple is planting its seeds.