Apple Archive

Dell Takes on Apple's iPod and iTunes Music Store

- 2003.10.03

Someone's finally copied Apple's music strategy. That is, selling an MP3 player and providing an online music store where you can download tracks to use with the player. Those who figured that Apple would be the only one to use this plan probably hadn't considered that pretty much everything Apple comes up with- ends up being copied by another company.

This time it's Dell that's copying Apple. In a way, you could argue that Dell is trying to be what Apple was trying to be in the mid-90s. They've got a line of printers, handhelds, monitors - just about everything that Apple had back then.

Apple got a little bit behind in terms of hardware quality control - and also in terms of technology. They were still selling 180 MHz desktops in 1997, and their Power Mac 5200s were based no parts left over from the LC 630 series.

Dell, on the other hand, is not behind. They're just as far ahead as any other PC company out there - and that gives them a bit of an advantage. Not having to make sure their chip providers keep up with a different platform allows them to concentrate on other areas such as marketing.

Which, of course, means that Dell can branch out and start selling PDAs to compete with Palm, Sony, and the rest; printers to compete with Epson and others; and Dell Digital Jukebox now MP3 players, which are clearly designed to compete primarily with Apple (interesting thing is, Dell's website still shows the Apple iPod for sale).

Dell's new DJ (Digital Jukebox, left) is supposedly going to be able to play tracks from Dell's music service, and there's already a website (DJHacks.com) dedicated to hacks for the device. The interface appears to be very like that of the iPod, but I have to say that the device looks nowhere near as sleek as the iPod.

It seems that few details are available for the Dell DJ - apparently it will be released in time for the holiday season (can't miss out on that, can they). The online store, however, will be interesting. Will it be as easy to use as Apple's store? Will it offer the same selection that Apple does, or will it manage to outdo it?

If Apple can manage to come up with iTunes for Windows - and fast - Dell will have some real stiff competition there. Already many Windows users seem to own iPods, which means that a good portion of them may well choose to use iTunes to buy music online when it is available for Windows.

What would happen if Dell made its music service work with the iPod? If it managed to have a selection of different songs than Apple does, it might do quite well. Pricing is a hard issue, though, as I seriously doubt record companies are willing to budge from their fairly fixed pricing methods, so people will most likely find no difference in the pricing between the Dell and the Apple stores.

What if Apple made its music service work with the Dell DJ? We'd have a really nice selection of songs for either device - assuming, again, that both services offer slightly different music choices.

Realistically, this won't happen. Apple will want to promote the iPod, so its service will only function with that. Dell will want to promote it's DJ as well, and allowing it's songs to be downloaded by iPod users will only encourage people to use their service, not their MP3 player.

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