“It’s Stupid to Buy an iPod”
According to Forbes.com, Napster’s upcoming Napster To Go service (and marketing campaign) is being described by CEO Chris Gorog in the following ways:
It’s exactly what consumers want to do.
Apple’s commercial success with downloaded music contradicts this.
Napster To Go is very similar to the P2P experience
I don’t see how. There’s monthly credit card billing and everything you’ve paid for evaporates the minute your subscription lapses (see John Gruber’s “Subscription Small Print“).
Forbes goes on to state that Gorog
believes the best way to market the new service is to emphasise its advantages over iTunes. He’s particularly keen to highlight iTunes’ iPod-only compatibility.
Napster’s CEO has it backwards. iPod is the killer brand in this scenario, not iTMS. But to succeed, he must redefine the frame of reference. Napster To Go is a service — not a product — so he must attack Apple’s service.
Of course the iPod succeeds as a device even in the absence of the iTunes Music Store. I know I happily enjoyed my iPod long before iTMS was available in Canada. I simply enjoy it more now.
Napster’s service will use Microsoft’s Janus technology, preventing their songs playing on iPods. Given the iPod’s dominant position in the marketplace, it’s hard to see how this is an advantage to consumers with iPods.
Now the kicker:
We’re going to be communicating to people that it’s stupid to buy an iPod
I don’t think telling people that they’re stupid is a winning strategy, but I could be wrong. I did buy an iPod, after all…
