Apple Inc (AAPL)

[roni]

Apple's EcoSystem
Why Steve Jobs is winning the digital download wars—and what his competitors are trying to do about it.

Apple's secret sauce is the soothing consistency and reliability of its service. Apple sells songs for 99 cents, videos for $1.99, and ensures that all these songs, podcasts, TV shows and short films work on its own stylish line of iPods. One day, consumers might rebel against the copyright restrictions Apple places on its digital files and the lack of variety in its line of media players. For now, they simply love how seamlessly Apple's media ecosystem works.

and

Apple's rivals are devising a far more complicated set of offerings which—taken in tandem—could utterly confuse the average user. Verizon's new music store, for example, will let subscribers to its VCast service (who pay $15 extra a month) download songs for 99 cents to their PC and then transfer them to their phone. If they want to order a tune over the wireless network, it's $1.99, and then they get two copies of that song: a compressed file sent to their phone and a larger file to their PC. Get that? (Verizon says that the same model is hugely successful in Asia.)

and

Google's new video service is potentially even more confusing. Google co-founder Larry Page began his CES keynote speech last Friday afternoon with a quixotic, rambling screed against complexity in consumer electronics—epitomized by the rat's nest of cables underneath all our desks. Too many products, he said, were devised to satisfy the interests of companies and not consumers.

Then he proceeded to announce the digital equivalent of the rat's nest in Google Video's purchasing system.

rest of it here.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10794336/site/newsweek/