Is the iPod Losing Ground? - iTunes losing too?

The word coming out of Europe is that countries are saying no to the iTunes music store. Governments are threatening to shut down access to Apple’s music store unless Apple can sell songs without its Fairplay protection or open Fairplay up to other companies.  While nothing has been done yet, Apple is in a very sticky situation.  If they open up Fairplay to other companies, the chances of it being cracked increase exponentially, and that wouldn’t make the RIAA happy at all; they could possibly even revoke Apple's ability to sell songs.   

Sharing the protection will also open up the market, meaning people could get songs for their iPods from other places. The other option is to remove Fairplay completely from songs, which the RIAA isn’t going to let happen.  So where is Apple on this? CEO Steve Jobs  responded with a letter saying that he would be more than happy to sell songs without Fairplay, but the RIAA wouldn’t let that ever happen. On the other hand, Apple's recent announcement of a deal with EMI to sell songs online without copy protection shows that you never know for sure what can happen.

As iTunes goes so does iPod?  This is a possibility, since the iTunes music store is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.  Apple doesn’t make a lot of money per song, but people know that if they get an iPod it will 100% work with iTunes.  With other MP3 players and online music stores, you have to double check the compatibility.  If they can no longer buy songs at iTunes and nowhere else can sell songs for the iPod, will people still buy the iPod? I’m guessing they may since still a majority of songs are still downloaded illegally. If the RIAA decides to take the iron fist to people that download songs illegally it may make people choose an online music store. 

Next: Too fast too soon? >>
 

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