iTunes Store account mandatory for iPhone?

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 14 June 2007 04:13

Your IT - Mobility

A study performed by M:Metrics earlier this year came to the conclusion that "Sideloading – transferring music from a computer to a mobile device – is the universally preferred source of music on mobile phones by a wide margin, compared to downloading music from carrier music stores in any of the markets M:Metrics measures."

"The two main barriers to greater adoption of over-the-air music services – accessibility and fair value – are lesser issues with sideloaded music."

There are two important details in there. The iTunes Store is not a carrier music store. The relationship between individual consumers and Apple is quite different to the one they have with their carrier. Indeed, it seems reasonable to assume that a fair chunk of iPhone buyers will already be iTunes Store customers.

Secondly, all Apple needs to do to address the "fair value" concern is to hold its existing pricing and usage rights. If you can download a track to your iPhone and then sync it back to a computer and other devices, that's just as - if not more - attractive as using the computer as the hub of the process.

Importantly, everyone wins. Customers gain convenience and immediacy. Apple sees more sales at the iTunes Store. AT&T signs up more buyers on higher-priced unlimited data plans.

At the D: All Things Digital conference last month, Walt Mossberg asked Steve Jobs about putting the iTunes Store on the iPhone, and the answer was "We certainly have nothing to announce today." In other words, "no comment." Mossberg also asked about third-party applications for the iPhone, and the reply included "Sometime later this year we will find a way to do that". Not two weeks later later, Jobs outlined the way people will be able to write Web 2.0 applications for the iPhone.

So yes, we expect the iTunes Store to be part of the iPhone release.

Was the iPod the first portable MP3 player? No, but Apple popularised the category. Was the iMac the first computer with USB ports? No, but its arrival triggered broad adoption of that interface. Will Apple change the way people buy music for their phones? We'll soon find out.