Microsoft’s influence

Les Posen asks if Microsoft’s influence and relevance is waning.

Yes, it is.

The iLife

WSJ is highlighting firms that provide photo scan services. It is interesting that the two examples that the article cites both use iPhoto:

[Dale Pelletier] he has used the scanning service to digitize all of his mother’s old pictures as well as the pictures he took before he switched to digital cameras five years ago. “I’ve had 3,000 photos scanned. Everything is in iPhoto in my Mac, and now the fun begins,” he says. He used some of them to make a book and a slide show for his daughter’s 16th birthday party.

…

Mark Susson, a personal-injury lawyer in Newport Beach, Calif., who had used 30 Minute Photos to make pictures for trials, says he has brought in 8,000 pictures to be scanned. While flying to Chicago for a friend’s funeral last year, he used the iMovie program on his Apple Macintosh to create a slide show with music. He says the pictures were flashed on a big screen during the church service and “the movie has been copied dozens of times for her relatives.”

Is it a coincidence, successful branding or combination?

Reuters needs reference database (or learn to use Google)

Reuters article on Napster contains this eye-popping assertion:

In its earliest days, Napster almost single-handedly launched Internet song swapping but was forced to close in July 2001 after a series of legal battles over copyright infringement.

It relaunched as a legal download site in 2003.

How difficult is it for the Reuters reporter to check Roxio/Napster history and accurately report that Roxio bought the rights to the Napster name and the current incarnation bears no relation with the earlier Napster?

And this assertion goes unchallenged:

Napster Chief Executive Chris Gorog says Apple’s approach is “anti-consumer” and had held back the subscription model. But Gorog expects the picture to change as consumers turn to mobile phones that also operate as MP3 players. He believes this access to a wider market will introduce more music fans to the concept of unlimited subscription services.

Anti-consumer? Has Gorog considered what consumers really want? Maybe Reuters should have checked with some consumers. They would have realized that consumers think the subscription model is a rip-off, and those who are attracted to the concept of subscription are opting for XM or Sirius over Napster and others. Does Gorog realize that XM & Sirius are his competition, not iTunes? Moron.

The subscription model is furthered doomed when one considers the enormous downward price pressure on new CD releases.

Last word:

But Gorog said he is not concerned by Zune as he did not think it was a “player” in the market and said Microsoft is still supporting the PlayForSure system, with mobile phone makers Nokia and Motorola signing up.

Translation: Please, Microsoft, bail me out.