Wednesday August 22, 2007

- MTV to Team up with Real to Compete with iTunes - Lionel - 11:23:00

Source : Dailytech

iTunes Competitors are trying to get organized. In May MTV was announcing the URGE music platform created with Microsoft to directly compete with Apple iTunes. With Microsoft running its own Zune Marketplace and the poor success of URGE, MTV decided to drop its partnership with Redmond' giant and to create a new team with Real, merging URGE and Rhapsody into Rhapsody America.
The future of such new online music store remains uncertain, but the main competitors for Apple iTunes are not other online shops, but rather the Music Majors which do not want to leave Apple in its current dominating position. The fact that Apple iTunes will not be able to offer DRM-free music albums while almost of all the other online music shops will be granted. This will quickly create an unfair situation, and can only be running for a very short time. We would not be surprised to see Apple suing Universal music for creating conditions for unfair competition.


[translation by Linathael]

- iPhone in Europe: Same Business Model? - Lionel - 11:15:11

According to the Financial Times website FT.com, Apple successfully pushed European carrier to follow the Apple's iPhone business plan. The selected European mobile phone carriers (Orange for France, T-Mobile for Germany and O2 for UK) will share parts of their revenues with the Cupertino.
The Apple-European carriers’ partnership is supposed to be announced at the IFA trade fair in Berlin at the end of August; with rumored availability for the end of September.

The iPhone business plan gives Apple as a manufacturer of handsets for the first time a direct share of the revenues a mobile phone carrier makes from calls, data transfers, and subscriptions. Apple's victory might push other mobile manufacturer such as Nokia and Sony-Ericsson to look into such deal with worldwide carriers. Apple had the strong historical success of the iPod as a proof of its know-how, while other manufacturers can not really come-up with similar examples.

[translation by Linathael]

- Toshiba to Release 320GB Storage Space for Notebook - Eric - 11:00:46

Source : Toshiba and Cheerful

Toshiba Storage Device Division will release by year end a 2.5" HD featuring 320GB storage space. The MK3253GSX will be built from two 160GB plates, spinning at 5400rpm, and will feature (only) 8MB of cache.
A new version of 2.5"HD with higher rotation speed (7200rpm) will also be offered, with a storage capacity topping at 250GB.
Both 5400 and 7200rpm series will be available in SATA format and their thickness (9.5mm) will make them compatible with all Intel-based MacBook models.