Over at CNET News they are reporting that Rob Glaser of Real is back to taking shots at Steve Jobs for not opening up the iPod to other music stores.
“We think Apple Computer, and Steve personally, are making a mistake by making the software proprietary,” Glaser said, noting that RealNetworks would continue catering to users of Macintosh computers. “There’s no reason we should penalize Apple customers for Steve’s pigheadeness.”
In an interview following his presentation, Glaser called for the music industry to pressure Jobs into opening up the iPod to other online music vendors.
“Steve makes for a good pinata because he’s taken a position against interoperability,” Glaser said. These people “should be pressuring him to change because they have leverage over him. Apple being on its own in term of interoperability makes piracy more compelling for consumers. Because, hey, if I take all my MP3s from this illegal site or that illegal site, they’ll work on the iPod or anything else. Whereas if I buy them legitimately, they’ll only work at one place.”
The fact of the matter is that Apple is not going to open iTunes or the iPod unless they have to. They jump started the market for legal digital downloads with iTunes and the MP3 player market with the iPod. Glaser right now -and the other download services- need Apple to open things up or they are dead in the water unless or until the iPod loses it’s appeal. Let’s not kid ourselves all these other companies in either the download or MP3 player market would do the same thing if in the same position. Apple brought the whole package to the table and for all intensive purposes they are the only ones sitting at it.
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