With the Palm Pre making probably the most worthy
iPhone competitor, Apple is (seemingly) beginning to feel the ground shaking beneath its feet. Palm likes to advertise its smartphone as being able to connect to iTunes. Apple, of course, had to have a say in this.
The New York Times
points out that Palm touts the Pre’s ability to link to iTunes as a selling point. Readers should note that Palm’s smartphone isn’t the only device able to connect to iTunes, Apple’s popular media-focused software application for Mac and PC. However, for Pre owners, accessing iTunes is important, Katie Mitic, senior vice president for product marketing at Palm, says.
“We appreciate that many, many of our consumers use iTunes as their music or photo management system,” she says. “We just want to make it as easy as possible for them to use it on the Pre.”
Still, The NY Times outlines that Apple wants to make sure the iPhone is the only compatible cellphone with iTunes. So, what Apple did was change its software to block the Pre’s access to iTunes (which lists Palm’s device as an actual “iPod”), the report reveals. “As we’ve said before, newer versions of iTunes software may no longer provide synching functionality with unsupported digital media players,” Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for Apple, shares.
But Palm claims it is acting appropriately, because it is in response to Apple’s restrictions, the NY Times continues to say. Cited in the piece is Douglas B. Luftman, an associate general counsel for Palm. “We think we are consistent with our compliance,” Luftman explains. “We’re not trying to appear to be anything we’re not — except for interoperability purposes with iTunes.”
Also noteworthy is that the Pre is the first device to directly connect to iTunes, without requiring additional steps, like other media players do. Therefore..., “It’s possible Apple is worried that customers might start buying Palm phones instead of iPhones or iPods,” J. Gerry Purdy, the chief analyst of mobile and wireless at the research firm Frost & Sullivan, points out.
Agreeing with Sullivan is Mr. Gartenberg, an analyst at Interpret, who believes that, “Apple understands that seamless relationship between the iPod, the iPhone and iTunes. It’s a big driver behind why consumers are buying their devices, and they’re going to try and protect that.”
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they think.
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