Filed under: iPod Family, iTunes, Steve Jobs
Rob Glaser of RealNetworks: Jobs "pigheaded"
Allright, we all know that Steve Jobs isn't known for his delightful personality. He was saying "You're fired" well before Trump had a comb-over. While I do wish that our favorite CEO were a little more personable, I've come to trust that he really knows what he's doing, and if a part of his formula is an almost fanatical devotion to his own convictions, then fine. I can live with that.Yet, not everyone can see past his abrasiveness. For instance, RealNetworks' CEO Rob Glaser told attendees at the Digital Living Conference yesterday that Apple's refusal to open the iPod to other online music services was due to Steve's "pigheadedness." I agree that it would be great to be able to use the iPod with a variety of music services, but the whole purpose of the iTunes Music Store is to sell iPods, really. "So, you want to get your mits on some of this great content? Well, you're going to need one of these swank iPods..."
I'm not disagreeing that Steve is probably a bit of a "strong personality," nor do I deny that a lot of people would like a more open iPod. I do, however, trust that Steve has a whole plan in place that will come to slow, patient and calculated fruition.
[Via MacNN]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bryan said 8:08AM on 12-07-2005
yeah steves plan is to make as much money for himself as possible.....how is that good for consumers?
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Steve said 8:19AM on 12-07-2005
I buy Apple products because they are sound (pun intended), integrate seamlessly betwixt software and hardware, and besides that the design is cool. The cost is a bit higher than your run-of-the-mill electronics product, but I believe you get what you pay for. That is how Apple's policies are "good for consumers." If people don't like Steve Job's pigheadedness they can vote with their wallets by buying other MP3 players and subscribing to other MP3 music stores. It is a free country.
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Garrick said 8:32AM on 12-07-2005
Rob would be more credible if RealNetwork was fully OSX-compatible. I cancelled the service back in October (after the Big Brother live feeds were done) because almost everything else on the site was Windows only.
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JT said 8:46AM on 12-07-2005
I find this very ironic coming from a dude whose only achievement is a crappy player/streamer that never made profit, and whose only reason to survive is because of the big check he got from a MSFT settlement a while ago. Glaser has nothing to learn in terms of misplaced, over-inflated ego.
Sorry, but if "pigheadedness" means you're gonna survive two decades in the business (most of them spent innovating), I would love to be called that. Glaser is desperately burning cash to stay afloat, and he knows better than anyone that Real's days are counted, because next time, there will be no more gazillions from MSFT to save him. Even them have learned some lessons.
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Radical Bender said 9:13AM on 12-07-2005
Those who can, do. Those who can't, whine about how unfair it all is.
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Make Richards said 10:23AM on 12-07-2005
Yeah. Steve Jobs only interest is to make some fast money. This coupled with the fact that he is doing this has made him arrogant.
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mike s said 10:35AM on 12-07-2005
The iPod is open to online music services, like eMusic, that don't use Digital Rights Management.
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doshin said 11:34AM on 12-07-2005
Rob Glaser calling anyone pig-anything is the pot calling the kettle black.
Does everyone remember when Glaser was championing the reverse engineering of Fairplay and saying how Apple had to be opened up? Just a couple of years before, he was suing Streambox for doing the same thing to Real.
What a hypocrite.
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jonas said 12:38PM on 12-07-2005
...because not licensing worked so great for the mac market share.
if apple doesnt licens its fairplay, some other "open" solution will grow larger. (read: playsforsure)
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Robert Knight said 1:18PM on 12-07-2005
The REAL (no pun intended) reason the iPod and iTMS are closed is because if ANY networks song could go on an iPod, the record companies would walk away from Apple and shop around for the best cut for them and the higher prices for us.
Don't think they wouldn't, their taking grandmas to court.
I'd rather iTMS stayed closed until there are no more record companies.
Furthermore, iTMS and iPods just work, period. Imagine the crap you'd go through if your iPod locked itself down completely because you hadn't paid your "monthly fee" to Napster or Rhapsody or whatever. The Mac Genius Bar would be full of people complaining they needed new iPods because theirs "broke." I'm no fan of Apple's DRM, but I bet the other networks are doing at least as much if not worse to protect those beloved record companies and I personally don't want my iPod in their mitts.
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Brady J. Frey said 4:41PM on 12-07-2005
I'm still not listening to what CEO Rob Glaser has to say about anyone -- that company produces more crap software than any other large company, and only now, while it's down, does it hide behind a veil of consumer fighter.
It maybe pigheaded they don't share with other people, but I've never had as much complaints with an Apple App than I have with RealNetwork trash -- I wouldn't share my content with that software either.
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Ryan said 3:58PM on 12-08-2005
Yeah, let's make sure everybody has access to music, says the person who just released Rhapsody to the Mac public this past week after the product being available for years beforehand. I can't believe the pair on this.....BUFFERING
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