How Spotify Can Challenge Apple iTunes’ Market Dominance

Within the United States, Spotify also enjoys another unique advantage: Spotify’s music streaming service is integrated with Facebook, which means users can easily share songs with friends.

Operating in only seven European countries, Spotify has 1.6 million paid subscribers and more than 10 million registered users. Spotify is seen as the future of digital music business and is billed to eclipse pioneer Apple iTunes.

Instead of selling individual downloadable tracks, Spotify will offer a three-tiered subscription model that lets customers choose between a free, ad-supported service, an ad-free subscription for $5 and a premium service available on mobile devices for $10.

Users can now stream whichever song they like to their computer or mobile phone. “We want to make it simple for people … If you want to take your music with you, you shouldn’t have to worry about 15 different sync programs or anything else. It ought to be as simple as pressing play and it works. And ultimately when you get to that point, that’s when people are prepared to pay. People are prepared to pay for convenience,” Spotify founder Daniel Ek says.

Apple’s iTunes in the Cloud UK launch date ‘won’t be this year’

Steve Jobs launched Apple’s new free iCloud service, including its iTunes in the Cloud music features, on Monday – with a beta version of iTunes in the Cloud being made available to US users immediately.

But The Telegraph reports that music industry insiders have said that there’s effectively no chance that the service will launch in the UK before the first quarter of 2012 at the earliest, as Apple is only in the beginning stages of negotiations with the major music labels.

Apple’s service, while similar in concept to those recently launched by Google and Amazon, had the major advantage of gaving signed deals with the major record labels (which its rivals did not)/ This allows them to scan and ‘mirror’ a user’s music library without the need for a lengthy upload process, with their (paid-for) iTunes Match feature.

A spokesman for the UK music industry’s Performing Rights Society told the Telegraph: ‘The licensing team at the PRS have started talks with Apple, but are a long way off from any deals being signed…It is very much the early stages of the negotiations and is similar to the launch of iTunes – which began in the US and took a while to roll out to other countries.

And Mark Mulligan of Forrester Research added: ‘Apple’s cloud music service will not launch in the UK until at least quarter one of 2012. These types of negotiations take a long time.’

The UK, of course, does have Spotify for its cloud music needs, which the US doesn’t – the Sweden and London-based firm’s Stateside launch has been delayed for years by negotiations with the US music labels. However, it’s widely believed that this could be about to change, with Spotify said to be close to wrapping up the deals it needs.

Apple’s iTunes In The iCloud Not Coming To UK Until 2012

Apple introduced the iCloud recently and among many other useful features the iCloud will offer backup services for purchased music. The full iCloud is coming this fall to the U.S. but how about other regions?

It will not come for sure until quarter one of 2012, according to U.K.’s The Telegraph. The publication cites a spokesman for the Performing Right Society who allegedly said that “The licensing team at the PRS have started talks with Apple, but are a long way off from any deals being signedIt is very much the early stages of the negotiations and is similar to the launch of iTunes which began in the US and took a while to roll out to other countries”.

Of course there are copyrights and intellectual property issues involved and Apple will have to fight the same war Microsoft is fighting for a couple of years now trying to bring Zune to more markets but artists and their labels (plus lawyers and laws) appear to be standing in the way.

An executive (who wished to remain anonymous) with a record label also told The Telegraph that “tentative talks have begun between the major labels and Apple in the UK. However, all talks are at the really early stages and no one expects to see the cloud music service live on this side of the pond until 2012″. We hear you and so do the potential Zune customers around the world. …and we think it’s safe to assume that if it won’t come to UK until 2012, it won’t come to other parts of Europe either. What about the rest of the world? Same laws, probably same issues…

Source: The Telegraph
Via: iLounge

Apple iCloud: Details emerge on new music service

Apple has not confirmed the existence of its cloud music service, but as the far as the rest of the tech world is concerned, the whole thing is pretty much fait accompli. So let’s turn to the good stuff: Assuming this cloud music service does exist – “iCloud,” to borrow the terminology de jour – what does Apple have that Google, Amazon, and its other competitors don’t? Support from EMI, Sony, Warner Music, and maybe even Universal (probably).

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And also the ability to “mirror” your entire iTunes library in the cloud, instantly detecting which songs are low-quality, and replacing those low-quality jams with better-quality files. Thus say the folks over at Bloomberg Businessweek, who have published a much-discussed piece on the forthcoming Apple offering. According to Businessweek, iCloud, or whatever it’s titled, will allow users to stream content from the Internet to a range of gadgets.

IN PICTURES: Steve Jobs and Apple

So forget the clunkiness of having to actually sign onto your laptop to access your library. With iCloud, Apple has all your music somewhere in the ether; with a single click, you can access that library on your iPad 2, iPhone, iTouch, etc. Which sounds awesome. But as Businessweek’s Brad Stone and Andy Fixmer warn, iCloud probably won’t be free.

“Apple no doubt has paid dearly for any cloud music licenses, and it’s unclear how much of those costs it will eat or pass on to consumers,” Stone and Fixmer write. “One possibility would be to bundle an iCloud digital locker into Apple’s MobileMe online service, which currently costs $99 a year and synchronizes contacts, e-mail, Web bookmarks, and other user data across multiple devices.”

Also of interest: The recent problems with cloud-based services. Horizons readers will remember that back in April, Amazon cloud servers went dark, bringing down a range of popular websites, including Foursquare, Reddit, Hootsuite, and Quora. The cloud is obviously the direction in which we’re headed, but Apple has some work to do convincing users that it can keep all that personal data safe and secure.

Apple user? Drop us a line in the comments section. In the meantime, for more tech news, sign up for the free Innovation newsletter, which is emailed out every Wednesday.

IN PICTURES: Steve Jobs and Apple

New Details About Apple’s iCloud Music Locker Service Emerge

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Apple’s iTunes truly revolutionized the digital music industry and now it seems that they are ready to take it to the next level with ‘iCloud’ music streaming service.

We recently reported that Apple has closed licensing deals with three out of the four major music labels for their soon to be announced digital music locker service. This gives Apple great advantage over its competitors, Google and Amazon, who launched similar service without the license deals.

Music labels are always looking for new revenue streams and it’s possible that Apple probably had to pay a huge amount in-order to secure the rights for its new music streaming service. Apple’s iCloud service is widely believed to be tied to MobileMe ($99/year) which already allows users to keep their Mail, Safari Bookmarks, Documents etc. on their Macs and iOS devices in Sync.

BusinessWeek recently published a report in which they detailed Apple’s iCloud service:

Apple will be able to scan customers’ digital music libraries in iTunes and quickly mirror their collections on its own servers, say three people briefed on the talks. If the sound quality of a particular song on a user’s hard drive isn’t good enough, Apple will be able to replace it with a higher-quality version. Users of the service will then be able to stream, whenever they want, their songs and albums directly to PCs, iPhones, iPads, and perhaps one day even cars.

A patent application recently published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office also revealed some features about iCloud service which the Cupertino Calif. based company could be looking into. The patent basically explains that any song you want to access from the cloud would require your device to store a minimum of 30 seconds preview. This would allow the user to skip songs without any lag as the preview could be used for the first 30 seconds while the track stored on the cloud can buffer and offer seamless experience.

During WWDC 2011 Apple is expected to share details about the future of iOS and preview Mac OS X Lion. iOS 5 is believed to finally introduce cloud based services which Apple has been preparing for since a long time.

Follow @Touch_Reviews on Twitter. For the latest iPhone / iPad app reviews, news and giveaways subscribe to our RSS feed via email or RSS reader.

Related Posts

1. Apple Patent Reveals iCloud User Interface with ‘Partial Song Syncing’
2. Apple to Charge Annual Fee for Cloud-Based Music Locker
3. Apple Signs EMI, Cloud Music Deals Close to Completion? iCloud
4. Amazon Withdraws Apple’s MobileMe as iCloud Launch Approaches
5. Google Launches ‘Music Beta by Google’ — Apple Shouldn’t Worry

Apple’s iTunes ‘iCloud’ is amnesty for file-sharers

We’ve spent a lot of time mulling over what the Apple AAPL iTunes ‘iCloud’ service might be like. We now learn it is a music locker with an added file-sharing amnesty that also upgrades all your low-quality tracks to higher bit-rates stored on the iTunes servers.

ABOVE: Apple’s WWDC 2011 invitation. Some people think the company will launch an iPhone. That’s not what I’m expecting.

Music in the sky

In recent days, EMI, Sony and Warners have all signed-up to the new system. Universal hasn’t agreed a deal yet, but is expected to do so soon.

Business Week says its sources who claim Apple’s service will scan a user’s music collection and mirror it in the cloud. That’s good because it means you won’t have to go through the lengthy process of uploading your music and bursting your ISPs bandwidth.

This story is from Computerworld’s Apple Holic blog. Follow on Twitter or subscribe via RSS to make sure you don’t miss a beat.

The service will also let file-sharers mirror their tracks using iTunes.

That’s very interesting, because it represents some form of amnesty position for such users, and also because it means the labels can recover a little lost revenue, as the service is expected to be made available for a subscription fee as part of MobileMe.

“Armed with licenses from the music labels and publishers, Apple will be able to scan customers’ digital music libraries in iTunes and quickly mirror their collections on its own servers, say three people briefed on the talks. If the sound quality of a particular song on a user’s hard drive isn’t good enough, Apple will be able to replace it with a higher-quality version. Users of the service will then be able to stream, whenever they want, their songs and albums directly to PCs, iPhones, iPads, and perhaps one day even cars,” writes Business Week (who obviously haven’t heard of iPod/iPhone in-car integration systems.)

Killing the mockery birds

Apple’s purported service contrasts well with music locker services recently made available by Amazon and Google. These unlicensed services require users to upload their own collections, and, because they lack label backing, are unlikely to be able to sustain a forest of ancillary services or devices in the long-term.

Apple’s service will let subscribers stream their songs and albums directly to Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads, iPod touch devices and Apple TV.

“We will come to a point in the not-so-distant future when we’ll look back on the 99¢ download as anachronistic as cassette tapes or 8-tracks,” Ross Crupnick, a music analyst at NPD Group told Business Week.

Apple’s iCloud is expected to deliver a wide range of services, including syncing and storing of personal data, potentially including your Home folder. The service seems set to act as the glue to bring all Apple’s platforms together in one place.

ABOVE: Larry Ellison gets the crowd laughing in his waxed invective at the cloud buzzword thing.

Inherit the wind

Bandwidth and security are likely to be the biggest challenges delivering cloud-based services from any vendor.

Almost half (48 per cent) of all organizations in the UK already using cloud computing in some form, 85 per cent of existing user are confidently predicting further roll-out of cloud provisioning across a number of core business applications.

“End-user organizations continue to express anxieties about data security, privacy and sovereignty, all of which were cited by a majority of respondents and all of which the industry can and need to present a clearer position around to allay these natural fears. Security concerns have forever been a feature of discussions on the cloud, although that is not in any way to make light of such an important issue,” says Chris Baldock, Managing Director of intY.

Another challenge Apple will face as it moves to bring its services to international markets will revolve around data nationality.

• Will Mac users want their music and personal data hosted on servers in the US, where they are covered/protected by US data protection laws, or will they wait for locally-hosted services, protected by their own national data laws.

ABOVE: Right to left: Steve Jobs, Eddy Cue, Neelie Kroes and an unidentified male. (Source EC

Who owns your data in the cloud?

Cloud based challenges such as these seem on the fast track to being resolved, in so far as government and NGO’s can ever operate on the fast track. For example, Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda, has launched a public consultation on the benefits that cloud computing can deliver.

Andy Burton, Chair of the Cloud Industry Forum and CEO of Fasthosts, says, “The EU consultation is inviting all interested parties, in particular cloud developers and cloud users, to explain their experience, needs, expectations and insights into the use and provision of cloud computing.“

Problems of internationalization mean Apple will be unlikely to offer its iCloud services to international markets from the get-go.

This also challenges the depth to which Apple will commit its cross-platform strategy to these new solutions. Execs will have to consider, if iCloud is the glue and is unavailable in European markets, will lack of support for such services dampen device and Mac sales?

Apple is expected to preview its cloud plans as early as June at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Who owns data in the cloud? Is there enough bandwidth for services like these? Can mobile carriers support iTunes streaming? Is this set to be hope or hype? Drop me a line via Twitter or in comments below and let me know. And please, I’d be honored if you chose to follow me on Twitter so I can let you know when these items are published here first on Computerworld.      

Report: Apple music cloud service to auto-add iTunes Store tracks

The cloud music service Apple is widely believed to unveil at WWDC next month may have an important feature that the competition lacks. Instead of forcing users to upload their entire multi-gigabyte music collections, Apple’s “iCloud” service will automatically add tracks that are in Apple’s extensive iTunes Store library.

According to sources speaking to Business Week, Apple’s service will “scan customers’ digital music libraries in iTunes and quickly mirror their collections on its own servers.” Tracks not available via the iTunes Store would still need to be uploaded, but the feature would significantly reduce the amount of data that would need to be uploaded for the average user.

A side benefit of the feature is that users will be able to stream iTunes Plus versions of the songs, even if the user originally encoded the tracks as lower quality AAC or MP3 files. Such a feature was also a benefit of Lala, the streaming music service Apple bought in late 2009.

The high-bitrate streaming would be the fruit of Apple’s efforts to reach licensing deals with record labels. The company is believed to have already signed deals with EMI, Warner Music, and Sony, leaving Universal as the lone holdout among the big four. There hasn’t been any word on Apple attempting to reach deals with independent record labels, though it seems likely they would sign on to Apple’s service once launched.

The automatic track mirroring is in sharp contrast to Amazon’s Cloud Drive and Google’s Music Beta digital lockers. Those services simply provide storage for users to upload their music files, with Web-based and mobile streaming players. Amazon and Google launched their services without the blessing of music labels, which believe both companies should pay license fees.

Business Week noted that Google tried for a year to set up a cloud music service that included licensed sales and other features, but launched its unlicensed Music Beta when talks broke down over the fact that Google searches link to pirated music. Amazon reportedly launched its service without seeking licensing at all, arguing that all the music belongs to users, and that Amazon simply provides a cloud-based storage service.

Report: Apple seeks dismissal of FairPlay lawsuit

Apple asked a federal judge today to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit filed against the company over the FairPlay digital rights management software it formerly employed in its iTunes music store.

FairPlay’s encoding of digital music files ensured that songs bought through iTunes would play only on iPods and not other music players and that songs bought through other digital music stores would not play on an iPod.

In July 2004, RealNetworks challenged Apple with the release of software called Harmony that was designed to crack through FairPlay’s DRM and allow its own digital music files to play on the iPod. Apple responded by updating the iPod in October and rendering RealNetworks’ content unplayable.

Apple eventually dumped FairPlay in 2009, but a group of iPod and music buyers sued in 2005, claiming that the company’s use of FairPlay allowed it to maintain a monopoly over both digital audio players and music downloads.

The blocking of downloads that used competitors’ software was designed to improve iTunes customers’ experience, Robert Mittelstaedt, an attorney for the Cupertino, Calif.-based company said at a hearing today in San Jose, Calif., according to a Bloomberg report.

“Apple’s view is that iPods work better when consumers use the iTunes jukebox rather than third-party software that can cause corruption or other problems,” Mittelstaedt reportedly told U.S. District Judge James Ware.

The request for dismissal comes nearly a month after a federal judge ordered Apple CEO Steve Jobs to answer questions in a deposition related to the suit. Attorneys for Apple had argued that his testimony in this case would be repetitive of what has already been offered, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd ruled that was not sufficient to preclude Jobs from testifying.

Apple representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple releases an update to fix Itunes on the Macbook Air

MAKER OF SHINY TOYS Apple has released a supplemental update to Mac OS X 10.6.7 for the 13-inch Macbook Air.

Apple’s original Mac OS X 10.6.7 update had left many Macbook Air users complaining that their machines became unresponsive after launching Itunes. It led to a large number of posts on Apple’s forums from users trying to work out fixes that even Heath Robinson would be proud of, however now Apple has come to the rescue of its followers by releasing an update to address the issue.

Unlike with most of its software updates, Apple has kept the description of this OS X 10.6.7 supplemental update pretty short, simply saying, “This update addresses an issue that makes the system unresponsive when using Itunes.”

Apple’s update seems to have done the trick, with one forum user reporting, “Minutes ago I got an OS X 10.6.7 additional update for my MacBook Air 13-inch through the software update function. Itunes is now working normal and the system is stable. Problem solved.”

It’s not that surprising that Apple went to such lengths in order to fix Itunes. It is perhaps the most important application in Apple’s software library, allowing users to purchase music and applications for the Mac, Ipod, Iphone and Ipad. Users unable to access Itunes not only lose the ability to synchronise their devices but partially limit their ability to buy applications, which in turn hurts Apple’s bottom line. µ

Apple Pushing ‘Great AirPlay Apps’ via iTunes

iOS 4.3 brought many great features to iPhone and iPad users, from personal hotspot, to a brand new, ultra-fast JavaScript engine.

One of the new – yet less known – feature offered by the new version of the operating system is AirPlay support for third party apps. Third-party developers can now use the AirPlay API to stream content from their apps, to any AirPlay compatible devices such as Apple TVs – a feat only reserved to Apple-branded apps thus far.

For the occasion, Apple has opened a specific AirPlay-compatible apps section in iTunes to showcase the best apps that leverage the technology. As of now, a little over ten apps are featured, including Discovery Channel HD, VEVO, Martha Stewart Makes Cookies, ESPN the Magazine for iPad, Golfplan with Paul Azinger, My Daily Clip, Authentic Yoga with Deepak Chopra, Baseball Gameplan with Jason Giambi, MLS MatchDay 2011, and last but not least, Air Video.

Note that the list is not exhaustive, and Apple will keep adding more apps to the AirPlay section as more AirPlay-compatible apps hit the App Store.

Thanks to AirPlay, users can stream music and videos throughout their entire house, wirelessly. While most Apple-branded products such as the second generation Apple TV already support AirPlay, a slew of speaker docks makers such as iHome, and more and more AV receivers and stereo systems makers such as Denon are embracing the technology as well.

Apple Considering Unlimited iTunes Downloads

Apple has initiated discussions with four major record labels to allow customers to download songs purchased through iTunes an unlimited number of times.

The record labels contacted by Apple are EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group Corp. According to unnamed sources, if negotiations are successful, Apple plans to begin offering the new service this summer.

This move if successful would allow iTunes customers to permanently back up purchases made through the store and download them to multiple devices such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod as well as a home computer or laptop.

Currently, Apple only allows a single download of any product and will not replace any purchase made if lost. The company’s terms of service clearly state that Apple is not liable if you lose, destroy or damage any download.

Apple Considering Unlimited iTunes Downloads

Apple’s iTunes is already in the cloud, NewBay says

Last week, it emerged that Apple is reportedly in talks with record companies about giving iTunes customers easier access to music they’ve purchased across multiple devices, backed up in perpetuity in the internet cloud. The technology giant, which brought us the iPod and the iPad, is believed to be in talks with Vivendi, Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI to give users more flexibility in how they buy their music and what they can do with it.

The deal would manifest itself in a permanent backup of music purchases for users if the originals are damaged or lost.

People want a singular experience across multiple devices

However, according to Dublin-headquartered company NewBay, such a service has been in existence since last year and was officially unveiled at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

While new for Apple, some subscribers have had access to music in the cloud since 2010, thanks to NewBay’s white-label platform, the company explained.

“Apple is finally realising that people want to access their music and video and other content from any connected device, whether it be a mobile phone, PC, tablet, TV, game console, etc,” explained Steve French, VP global marketing, NewBay.

“The only way to make this happen is by putting all user content, both user generated and premium, in the cloud.

“The Apple rumours come hot on the tail of NewBay’s recent announcement at Mobile World Congress 2011 (Play Your ‘iTunes’ Collection from any Device, Anywhere with NewBay) and our recent cloud-based media management service deployment for US carrier Verizon, V CAST Media Manager, which is available to millions of subscribers. NewBay is enabling the digital content cloud-services vision and it looks like Apple is just starting to get it.”

The Verizon V CAST Media Manager, powered by the NewBay LifeCache platform, operates just like an ‘iTunes in the cloud’ by enabling customers to copy all their digital content – including purchases from iTunes – and CD collections to the cloud, enabling them to manage music, create playlists and listen to them from any connected computer, mobile handset, tablet or TV.

The technology also enables users to share and sync this content with their social networks, address book contacts and other connected devices.

John Kennedy

Apple offers new and improved MacBook Pro laptops
Apple Inc. has rolled out new, faster versions of its popular line of MacBook Pro laptops, the familiar gray notebook computers frequently seen in coffee bars and on television shows.

The latest line of portable computers, which Apple updates annually, include speedier processors, a higher-resolution built-in camera for video chatting and a new data transfer technology called Thunderbolt. Laptops account for about 14% of Apple’s quarterly sales.

Thunderbolt is a USB-like connector that can send data between devices at a rate of 10 gigabytes per second. (By comparison, USB 2.0 transfers data at about 480 megabytes per second.) Intel, which developed the technology with input from Apple, said a full-length high-definition movie can be transferred in less than 30 seconds and one-year’s worth of MP3 music can be downloaded in 10 minutes.

Thunderbolt sockets can also be used to connect computers to external monitors.

All the new laptops will come with a built-in front-facing camera above the screen. They are dubbed FaceTime HD cameras, after Apple’s proprietary software that allows users of its computers and mobile devices to conduct video chats over a Wi-Fi connection.

The move in effect sweeps Apple’s old laptop cameras, called iSight, out of the company’s laptop line. FaceTime HD allows for high-resolution, widescreen video chats and photos, and works with most other Macs, as well as the iPhone 4 and the latest iPod Touch.

The new MacBook Pros, now on sale, start at $1,199 for the version with the 13-inch screen, $1,799 for the 15-inch model and $2,499 for the 17-inch version.

Apple also announced an upcoming version of its computer operating system, called OS X, that the company said was inspired by the look and feel of software on its iPad tablet computer. Programs will fill more of the screen, enable more complicated “touch” gestures with the trackpad and allow users to download applications from a centralized store.

The new version of the operating system, which Apple has dubbed Lion, will be available to consumers this summer, the company said.

In addition to a variety of TV shows, Apple’s products appeared in 33% of the top 100 movies at the U.S. box office in 2010, according to a report released by market research website Brandchannel on Tuesday. The site gave Apple its 2010 Award for Overall Product Placement.

david.sarno@latimes.com

Thursday’s Apple Rumors — Google’s Coming for iTunes

Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Thursday:

Motorola Hints at Google iTunes Battle: According to The Guardian, Motorola (NYSE:MMI) CEO Sanjay Jha may have accidentally confirmed the existence of a new Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) music service that will compete with Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes service. While speaking at the Mobile World Conference, Jha said that Google’s Android 3.0 platform, called Honeycomb, would make the tablet equal to Apple’s services because it “adds video services and music services.” He then elaborated on his point saying, “If you look at Google Mobile services today, there’s a video service, there’s a music service… that is, there will be a music service.” Google has tried to match Apple in each digital retail category — both companies opened e-bookstores last year, Apple’s iBookstore and Google Editions. Google’s music service would be a serious threat to Apple’s iTunes if it followed the Google Editions model of linking purchases to a Google account and being accessible via a web browser, which would make it available to Apple handset users.

Apple Corners Panel Supply Market: Taiwanese tech newspaper DigiTimes says that the flood of new contenders for the tablet crown held by Apple’s iPad are going to face serious supply issues as they come to market this year. Hewlett-Packard (NASDAQ:HPQ), Motorola, and Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) are all using the same glass capacitive touch panels in their tablets as Apple’s iPad. With a lock on 60% of tablet component supply, Apple has left those manufacturers competing over the remaining parts. For companies DigiTimes calls “second-tier players,” tablet makers like Vizio releasing its Via Tablet this year, they face being squeezed out of the market entirely due to shortages created by Apple.

MobileMe Refresh: Website Cult of Mac reported Wednesday that Apple will take on Facebook, Foursquare, and Ustream with the new version of its MobileMe services suite. New features include a live video-streaming service, a location-based check-in system, and a GPS-based tagging system currently named “Tokens” that lets users mark real-world places similar to Facebook Places. This report followed a Wall Street Journal report from earlier in the week that said Apple would be refreshing the MobileMe to coincide with the release of a smaller, cheaper iPhone this fall.

At the time of publication, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.

Apple’s App Store poised to break 10bn downloads barrier

App-solutely crazy

Apple’s App Store is nearing the 10 billion downloads milestone and has launched a competition that will have app and iTunes fans salivating.

Apple’s iTunes website is currently displaying a countdown/up clock that reads 9,859,378,290 (at 14.10) and it is gaining downloads at quite a pace as iPhone, iPad and iPod touch customers feed their app addictions.

Echoing a previous promotion to celebrate iTunes’ 10 billionth download, Apple will reward the person who downloads the 10 billionth app with a $10,000 iTunes voucher.

Although the prize is in dollars, Apple’s terms and conditions does not limit people from entering from outside the US. Entrants must be over 13 years of age and ‘a legal resident of a participating App Store country,’ which means Brits are in with a chance.

At the current exchange rate, the prize should be around £6,300 if a Brit should win.

The App Store was launched in July 2008 and has since transformed the smartphone landscape. The store crossed the 1 billion download line just 9 months after its launch.

Apple is hoping to replicate its App Store’s success having just launched the Mac App Store to give Mac users access to a whole bunch of apps, including downloads of Apple software packages like iMovie. Within 1 day of launch, 1 million apps were downloaded from the new platform.

Apple is currently trying to trade mark the term ‘app store’ but is facing opposition from Microsoft, which believes the term is too generic to be trade marked and different manufacturers already use it.

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Apple’s iTunes App Turns 10

From its humble beginnings as a simple music collection organizer, ten years later iTunes has become a killer app for playing and purchasing all kinds of media?and a major money maker, with over 10 billion songs sold.

January 9, 2001, marks the beginning of iTunes’ illustrious journey, when Apple released it as a Mac OS 9 application, built on the groundwork of the earlier SoundJam, which Apple purchased the rights to. It wasn’t until 2003,with version 4, that the real money-maker became part of iTunes?the iTunes Store.

No longer restricted to music on its tenth birthday, iTunes now sells and plays movies, TV shows, and even serves up college coursework with iTunes U. As recently as this past fall, it became a social network, too, with the introduction of Ping, and after that the heretofore untouchable Beatles music catalog became available.

A year after iTunes’ launch, it moved to Mac OS X and became the conduit for Apple’s fledgling iPod music players. Each time Apple has launched a new media-capable device?iPhone, touch, iPad?the software has been updated to match the new must-have gadget, and syncing to iTunes on either a Mac or PC is how users of those devices load their latest operating system versions.

The latest version of iTunes, 10.1, added support for iOS 4.2, which enables the company’s emerging AirPlay capability that allows wireless streaming of music, video, and photos throughout the home to compatible players and to Apple TV. And it’s likely that we’ll see yet another minor version bump for tomorrow’s big expected announcement of an iPhone that works on Verizon’s CDMA network.

As each version has added more features and capabilities, though, the software has gotten more and more bulky, with the current version weighing in at nearly 150 megabytes installed. We can only hope that future versions will go on a diet while remaining full-featured.

Yes, it’s a piece of software rather than a shiny gadget, but iTunes has been instrumental in Apple’s ascendance to tech domination?perhaps not in market share, but certainly in both mindshare among technophiles and in the company’s market valuation.

Hacked Apple iTunes accounts sell in China for pennies on the dollar

By Katie Marsal

Published: 09:00 AM EST A Chinese online store is selling hacked, illegal iTunes accounts tied to active credit cards, offering $200 worth of content from Apple’s service for as little as $30.

China’s Global Times this week revealed that about 50,000 illegal accounts are being sold through taobao.com, with prices ranging from just 1 yuan to about 200 yuan, or $30. Many of the sales are said to be stolen iTunes user accounts being re-sold by hackers.

“Potential buyers are promised access to music and movies through iTunes amounting to seven times more than the amount paid,” the report said. “The only restriction is that all downloads should be made within 24 hours of the transaction being completed at Taobao.”

A reporter for the publication tested the sales by paying $5 to a seller on Taobao. In return, they were provided an iTunes username and password which allowed access to an account complete with credit card details and a U.S. billing address.

Last July, it was revealed that iTunes account holders were being targeted in a number of fraud cases, in which some iOS developers used stolen accounts to boost their sales rankings of iPhone software. Apple quickly made a public response to the matter, suggesting that customers review their iTunes account for unauthorized transactions.

“Developers do not receive any iTunes confidential customer data when an app is downloaded,” the company said in a statement. “If your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about canceling the card and issuing a chargeback for any unauthorized transactions. WE also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately.”

In August, Apple also bolstered the security of its Apple ID accounts, which are shared by iTunes and store credit card information for purchases. Users must verify their account information when they log into new devices, and new iTunes account passwords must have at least 8 characters with mixed capitalization.

Compromised Apple iTunes Accounts Sell for Cheap Online

Roughly
50,000 active iTunes accounts are reportedly being sold online for as
little as 15 cents.

According
to China’s Global Times
newspaper, the accounts are being sold through taobao.com, a popular
Chinese-language online store, for between 1 and 200 yuanthe equivalent
of between 15 cents (USD) and $30 (USD). A reporter for the newspaper tested
the waters by paying $5 to a seller on the site, and in exchange was given an
iTunes username and password that permitted access to the account and
ultimately credit card and billing address information.

“Potential
buyers are promised access to music and movies through iTunes amounting to
seven times more than the amount paid,” according to the report. “The
only restriction is that all downloads should be made within 24 hours of the
transaction being completed at the site.”

According
to Global Times, thousands of such accounts have been sold during the past
several months. It is possible user account credentials were phished
or stolen through malware. It is also possible the accounts were
established using stolen credit cards.

“If
you think about it, there are cyber-criminals out there
who make money from stealing ‘virtual goods’ from online role-playing games
and sell them for hard cashso if they can make money from, effectively, ‘nothing,’
they can make money from iTunes accounts too,” Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant at Sophos, told eWEEK. “If people are prepared to
pay for somethingcut-price access to iTunesthere will be others who will try
and supply it.”

In
response to the report, Apple is advising users to take action if they suspect
their account may be compromised.

“We’re
always working to enhance account security for iTunes users,” an Apple
spokesman said in a statement. “If your credit card or iTunes
password is stolen and used on iTunes, you should contact your financial
institution about any unauthorized purchases, and be sure to change your iTunes
password right away.”

Apple Verizon iPhone Launch at 95% Probability: Analyst

One year ago at this time the world was wondering whether
Verizon Wireless would launch Apple’s iPhone on its leading network.

Now it’s not a matter of if but when as Piper Jaffray
analyst Gene Munster put the probability that Verizon would launch a CDMA
version Apple’s iPhone by the company’s March quarter at 95 percent.

Munster further expects Verizon will activate 9 million iPhones in 2011, comprising 36 percent
of Verizon’s estimated 25 million smartphone activations.

That long-anticipated launch — the iPhone has been on
AT&T in the U.S. since its inception in 2007– will lead a number of key
Apple announcements. Many of them will directly compete with Google’s own Android ambitions in the mobile computing space.

While Munster does not expect Apple to enter any new
product categories this year, he believes the company will unveil new versions
of all its major products.

Munster, who likes to put probability figures on his
predictions, expects with 100 percent certainty the Mac App Store launch to
happen Jan. 6. He is less certain about new Mac computers.

“We have moderate confidence that Apple will release redesigned
MacBook Pros in 1H11 and redesigned iMacs in 2H11,” Munster wrote in his
Jan. 3 research note.  However, Munster does peg the
next-generation Mac OS X Lion version to surface this summer.

The iPad, which Munster believes shipped 14.5 million
units in the U.S. in 2010, is currently sold in 30 countries. He expects the
device will roll out to more than 100 other countries at a 100 percent
likelihood.

He, like the rest of the world, also expects an iPad 2
coming in the spring. The iPad 2 is expected to be thinner, lighter and will sport
front and rear cameras to enable FaceTime video chat.

The analyst has a 90 percent probability rate on the
iTunes cloud services, which would likely compete with any Google Music
offering the search rolls out for Android smartphones this year.

Further borrowing from Google’s cloud playbook, new Apple
Web services could include expanded support for document storage in the cloud
(like Google Apps), or remote computing capabilities for Macs and iPads via the
cloud (like Chrome OS.

Looking forward to summer 2011, the analyst expects Apple
to introduce the iPhone 5 with near field communications technology to rival
Google’s recent Samsung Nexus S device.

The Nexus S
sports an NFC chip and runs Android 2.3, which has native NFC support to enable
short-range wireless communications between gadgets and contact terminals.

“We believe the new Nexus S, like the Nexus One,
will set the standard for new high-end Android devices, suggesting NFC chips
could be included with growing frequency,” Munster wrote.

In the near future, the market will see apps that enable
payments via the simple swipe of smartphones within inches of a checkout
appliance.Google and Apple will effectively be in a mobile payment
arms race by the end of 2011.

Polishing off his crystal ball some more, Munster
said Apple could enter the television market in earnest by the end of 2012.

The new Apple TV has shipped 1 million-plus units in a
short period of time, but Munster expects an Apple TV set with a full Mac OS X
operating system an Safari Web browser.

“While Apple’s commitment to the living room remains
a “hobby,” we continue to believe the company will enter the TV
market with a full focus, as an all-in-one Apple television could move the
needle when connected TVs proliferate,” Munster noted.

This means even tougher competition for Google TV, Roku,
Boxee and others trying to meld the Web world with the TV world. It also means
more choices for consumers.  

Apple iTunes Debuts The Beatles – Now They’re Among The Top Sellers
By Jeffrey Paulsen on November 18, 2010, 6:40 am Posted in Finance News

In the battle to provide digital renditions of the Beatles catalog, Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL) has won out, and it is paying dividends already. 40 years after the iconic band broke up, they are among the top sellers on Apple’s iTunes.

Google, Amazon Competed For Rights As Well

According to industry insiders, Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG ) and Amazon (NasdaqGS: AMZN ) wanted to offer the Beatles catalog as well, but Roger Faxon, CEO of EMI records went with Apple almost without hesitation. EMI owns the original master recordings, but they still had to make a deal with Apple Corps, a company fronted by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the surviving spouses of both John Lennon and George Harrison. Although EMI has the recordings, what they could do with those recordings had to be negotiated with Apple Corps, which is not related to Apple Corp. With negotiations between Faxon, Apple Corps CEO Jeff Jones and Apple’s Steve Jobs, the deal was made, and rest is literally history.

The Beatles have had differences in the past with Apple though. They accused Apple of infringing on their trademark business name in 1978. The spat was resolved when the Beatles licensed the Apple name to Jobs and Co. They have also had issues with Apple’s logo and their music synthesizer. All have been resolved.

Beatles Climb The Charts

Within a day being made available on ITunes, all 17 Beatles albums were in the ITunes top 50. Among those, three were in the top 10; Abbey Road, The White Album and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The box set containing all the albums is currently at No. 11. The most popular single song so far is “Here Comes The Sun.”

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