iTunes Music Store set pace for year

Trends included the introduction of camera-equipped cell phones and Tablet PCs

As obvious as this may sound, the Best Product of 2003 must go to iTunes Music Store. Even though still unavailable in Canada, Apple's music outlet has achieved success to a degree possibly unforeseen by Steve Jobs himself. The iTunes Music Store was launched on April 28, offering over 200,000 songs for download at 99¢ each. Choosing to compete with pirates instead of trying to eradicate them, 275,000 songs sold in the first 18 hours and 1 million in the first week. Given the success of iTMS on the Mac, Apple pushed a Windows client out the door in October and sales have now exceeded 25 million downloads.
This service undoubtedly paved the way to many similar ones, such as Napster, Wall-Mart or BuyMusic.com. At the same time it convinced Dell, HP, Microsoft, and Sony that Apple's way was the one to follow.
Consumers benefited ethically, by having a viable alternative to stealing music; and aesthetically, by being able to search for, preview, and download music with unprecedented ease. Unlike most rival services, the iTunes Music Store gives customers the freedom to store music indefinitely, burn custom CDs, and transfer songs to the Apple iPod portable player.
Data seem to show that ITMS' main source of revenue is the iPod, as most of the profits come from that direction. The record companies still get crippling royalties, and maintenance of a distribution network also shaves off a lot. This, however, does not worry Apple: its portable MP3 player is its workhorse. Now available in 10, 20, and 40GB flavors, the iPod is the market share leader for all MP3 players, both flash-memory and hard-drive based. What is even more important is that the iPod is cool. It's a must-have item for many, and the price tag has not scared off enough buyers to put a dent in its market share.
Camera-equipped cell phones also deserve mention. They have been winning a nice share of the European market, also thanks to the introduction of the new wide-band cellular telephony. We shall probably see something like that in Canada in a few years, as usual.
The arrival of the first 64-bit processors on the desktop market segment marks the dawn of a new era in computing. Apple-IBM's G5 (PowerPC 970) and AMD's Athlon open new perspectives and new horizons not only for average users but also for professionals and researchers, who were forced to use machines costing 6-digit amounts until recently. Despite what Intel claims, these processors are here to stay.
Even though not a surprise, another incredible success of 2003 was the boom of digital camera sales, a market in constant expansion.
One of the most unpleasant events of 2003 is the legal suit promoted by SCO against the world of UNIX-Linux. SCO Group, formerly Caldera, hired a famous lawyer to carry out its assault on the rights to the open source Linux OS, casting shadows on the future of that OS. This assault left a bitter aftertaste in many people, but it seems destined to rapid resolution after the ruling of a district judge who ordered SCO to submit evidence in support of their allegations. Until now, this evidence had been noticeably vague.
Another sore spot of the past year was the increase in spam mail to truly impressive levels. Some governments have been trying to stem the tide with laws, but results have been far from satisfactory. The software and hardware tools were also improved, yet the problem hasn't been solved, statistics keep showing upward trends, and companies are receiving more spam than legitimate email.
Year 2003 was supposed to be the year of Tablet PCs; these turned out to be too premature for the markets. Whether the blame should lie with Microsoft or with greedy manufacturers - considering the prices - one isn't sure. The truth is, the product did not sell.

Publication Date: 2004-01-11
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3519