James Delahunty
2 Mar 2006 7:47
Napster has put the blame on Microsoft and other manufacturers for the company's failure to provide real competition for Apple's iTunes music store. The company which made a complete transformation from the P2P service near everyone knows about from years back, has blamed glitches in Microsoft's Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) software for its poor performance. "There is no question that their execution has been less than brilliant over the last 12 months," Napster chairman and chief executive Chris Gorog said at a New York conference.
"Our business does rely on Microsoft's digital rights management software and our business model also relies on Microsoft's ecosystem of device manufacturers," he added. He claims that the company has a tougher job than Apple to provide a successful service. "It's a lot more complex to get organised properly than it is to build one device and one service as Apple has done," he said. "It's always been painful at the introduction of new technologies. But it always takes shape like it's done in the past."
He is confident however that success will come in the future as companies will be increasingly using Microsoft's Windows Media software. "Ultimately, the consumer electronics giants ... are all going to come to this Windows Media party," he said. "This is really going to be the ubiquitous format." One way Napster and other companies expected to bring down Apple was to provide music subscription services. However, it just appears that most consumers are just confused about the idea of "renting music".
Source:
Australian IT