Well I’m Mike D and I’m back from the dead
It’s hard to imagine Apple’s App store — 50 million users, 400,000 apps, 10 billion downloads — being threatened with extinction. (…) But we know that empires crumble: what’s interesting is how.
Right now pundits are focused on the threat of Android. (…) Android’s not the issue, however.
The real threat are web apps. The kind that will download to your device the moment you open then, allowing you offline access, whether they’re news, games, email or some other utility. If you don’t believe they’ll work — and eliminate dependencies on plugins outside of open web standards, like flash — go download a free copy of Angry Birds for Google Chrome and try disconnecting from your local network. (…)
Or try opening Nytimes.com/chrome in Firefox, any webkit-based browser or, of course, Google Chrome, and you’ll see what the future holds.
{ Technology Review | Continue reading }
Apple has entered the final stages of negotiations with the major record labels and music publishers for a service that will allow people to upload and store their music on the Web and listen to it on smartphones, tablets or computers — so-called cloud-based music.
Amazon and Google introduced similar services weeks earlier. Apple’s service, though, is expected to be easier to use, and to find a ready market in the 200 million people who have iTunes accounts. (…)
“I don’t think it is something they will have to give away for free, at least initially,” said Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray. Mr. Munster said the service could be bundled with MobileMe.
artwork { Laurent La Torpille }
related { Offlining is a growing response to what is now widely recognised as a first-world social problem: we’re all addicted to the net. | And: Is Netflix Reducing Illicit File Sharing? }
