Music execs pulling plug on Apple.

[Nothinman]

there is no monopoly or strangle hold. the ipod plays mp3s for one. a non drm'd format. or even non drm aac.

That's completely orthogonal, a monopoly doesn't require any technical lock-in just a single vendor to virtually exclusive control over a market which iTunes has.

it really doesn't count as a monopoly when the only barrier to competition is stupidity and fear by those with the power to easily compete.

Of course it does, MS was legally deemed a monopoly and the first thing every MS fanboi says is there's competition in the forms of OS X and Linux.

 

[Tegeril]

It would be more accurate to state that the iTunes Store is operating in a market categorized by monopolistic competition, as with many other markets in the world that operate without any interference by the government. One could argue that this market is contestable and that a superior service could easily take control away from the iTunes Store.

To say the iTunes Store has "virtually exclusive control" at the same time as one major label is ending its contract is pretty silly.

 

[Nothinman]

It would be more accurate to state that the iTunes Store is operating in a market categorized by monopolistic competition, as with many other markets in the world that operate without any interference by the government. One could argue that this market is contestable and that a superior service could easily take control away from the iTunes Store.

The government's lack of interference and whether or not iTunes could be easily dethroned is irrelevant, they still currently hold a monopoly. A monopoly is a monopoly and it's not always a really bad thing but it's almost always better to have competition.

To say the iTunes Store has "virtually exclusive control" at the same time as one major label is ending its contract is pretty silly.

Not unless that label has decided to endorse an iTunes competitor and even then it still wouldn't matter until that competitor took a decent chunk out of iTunes' market.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

DRM free on itunes is NOT mp3, still aac

And? AAC is essentially the successor to MP3 so what's the problem?

Nothing, I was just stating it to clarify.

 

[Nothinman]

Nothing, I was just stating it to clarify.

But the way you stated it made it out to be a bad thing when it's not, the only advantage mp3 would have is name recognition which will be true for just about any other format.