Consumers will resist the Urge
Today's Boston Globe front page boasted "MTV-Microsoft duo takes leap onto iTunes's stage", replete with a photo of two iPod ads (more about that below). And the article continues this optimistic view:
Observers of this battle between Microsoft and Apple regarding digital music will recall that we've heard these words before in 2004 when Microsoft prepared its Janus digital rights management system, and launched its MSN music store. And we heard more noises last year around this time from Microsoft about its own subscription system that it would sell through its partners. And then later we heard that Yahoo music was going to be the iTunes-killer, based upon Microsoft's software and digital rights management.
There are three marketing problems here. One is that URGE offers no real differentiation from either iTunes or other Microsoft-based music stores, other than the MTV brand and programming. Without big differentiation, there's no reason to change. Secondly, the store is incompatible with the dominant portable music platform, the iPod, making the available market for music buyers a niche. And third, Microsoft's primary offering is that of a subscription, where consumers are overwhelmed by the tyranny of too much choice. Every other Microsoft-based music store has run into these problems, and all have failed to make a dent in Apple's dominance to date.
Someone once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. URGE is Microsoft trying the convince consumers that the tyranny of too much choice in music is no big deal, and that they should throw away their iPods because they need more choice. I expect consumers will ignore this URGE, big time.
Full disclosure: I do hold a small position in Apple stock.
Analysts say the partnership of the world's largest software company and the marketing muscle of MTV poses the most serious challenge yet to Apple's dominance. "They are probably the strongest contender to come into the market for some time," said Phil Leigh, a senior analyst for Inside Digital Media, an Internet-based trade publication in Tampa, Fla.
Observers of this battle between Microsoft and Apple regarding digital music will recall that we've heard these words before in 2004 when Microsoft prepared its Janus digital rights management system, and launched its MSN music store. And we heard more noises last year around this time from Microsoft about its own subscription system that it would sell through its partners. And then later we heard that Yahoo music was going to be the iTunes-killer, based upon Microsoft's software and digital rights management.
There are three marketing problems here. One is that URGE offers no real differentiation from either iTunes or other Microsoft-based music stores, other than the MTV brand and programming. Without big differentiation, there's no reason to change. Secondly, the store is incompatible with the dominant portable music platform, the iPod, making the available market for music buyers a niche. And third, Microsoft's primary offering is that of a subscription, where consumers are overwhelmed by the tyranny of too much choice. Every other Microsoft-based music store has run into these problems, and all have failed to make a dent in Apple's dominance to date.
Someone once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. URGE is Microsoft trying the convince consumers that the tyranny of too much choice in music is no big deal, and that they should throw away their iPods because they need more choice. I expect consumers will ignore this URGE, big time.
Full disclosure: I do hold a small position in Apple stock.
Technorati Tags: Apple, Attention Economy, iPod, iTunes, Marketing, Microsoft, Movies, MTV, Music, Opinion, URGE
posted by Carl Howe at
10:12 AM
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