How Apple will use Wi-Fi iPod to crush competitors

Stan Beer
Sunday, 15 April 2007 21:06

Opinion and Analysis

The news that iPods equipped with Wi-Fi are imminent has raised speculation about how Apple intends to make use of the new wireless capabilities of its fastest selling device. Some commentators believe that wireless data transfer is the most probable use. However, this seems unlikely given previous comments from Apple. Music sharing - now that's another story.

During an interview with Apple's global iPod product manager, Greg Joswiak, in January at Macworld, he revealed that the Wi-Fi capable iPhone would not be used to transfer data wirelessly. The iPhone will be required to sync with a Mac or PC in the same way that iPods currently do. There is no reason to think that a Wi-Fi iPod would be given capabilities beyond those of the iPhone.

However, when asked if the iPhone will be able to "squirt" music to other iPods, Joswiak was less direct and more coy. He made a joke about the Microsoft term and avoided giving a direct answer.

In fact, the concept of sharing music wirelessly with friends, introduced by Microsoft for its currently unsuccessful Zune player, actually makes much more sense for the dominant iPod, which is selling at a rate of nearly 10 million units a quarter, than Zune or any other player.

Peer groups of iPod users are quite common. The same cannot be said of any other portable music player. For that reason alone, Apple has a brilliant opportunity to literally create an elite wireless network of music sharing users that requires an iPod for admission.

Microsoft, SanDisk and the other music player vendors will only be able to look on with envy while groups of young people with colorful Wi-Fi enabled iPods share music wirelessly in public places. The problem for Apple's competitors is no longer a technical one. With more than 100 million iPods sold and by far the most popular online music store, Apple has already won the cultural battle.