Walmart gaining on iTunes

kendall

kendall

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http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5199227.html

according to the stats at the URL above, iTunes has had a little less than twice the amount of downloads as Walmart but Walmart has only been open for 1/4 the amount of time as iTunes.

oh me, oh my? does iTunes finally have some competition? if the trend continues, Walmart should surpass iTunes before next year!

:eek:
 
Steve Jobs stated that the iTunes music store makes very little
or no profit, but has been a great vehicle for selling iPods.

So even if uncle wally manages to "outdo" the iTunes music store,
it will probably not make any real profit in the process.
 
The numbers apply to "subscribers or downloaders" not to the number of songs downloaded. I'd like to see those before yelling "Competition! WooHoo!".
 
gerbick said:
hey. I'm all about competition. Now... Walmart, sell Apple products.
Click to expand...
yeah, but then walmart might do to apple what they did to the Vlasic Pickle company!(lol)
 
ill be waiting for mister steve to speak tomorrow...


in any case... im tryin to search for any competition, cant see any...
800000ipods last quarter with the minies only out in the US and production shortages.... the HP deal ahead... and more than 50million iTMS songs....
Sony, Real, Microsoft.. where are you ??? .. scared of the guy in turtle necks and jeans ??? oh me, oh my... probably yes !!!
 
Alright, let's try to not get too cocky. People's attitudes for things can change rapidly. Apple needs to be very careful, as the people who own PC's are not so loyal as us Mac owners. I wish HP would hurry up and get their marketing in gear, etc for the release of the HP branded iTMS and iPod. This way Apple will be significantly aided in market dominance.
 
Well, at least Apple hasn't ruined neighborhoods, towns and local jobs/economies with really nasty and unfair tactics to bully their way into every place they want to be. Face it, Wal Mart is the Microsoft of retail. I will not step through their door let alone ever download their music.
 
If Walmart has half the amount of downloaders how are they going to catch up? So, if Apple has 500 million downloads Walmart having half would be 250... no way can walmart catch up with these numbers. Now, of course with some great marketing they probably will but not this year anyway... Of course they just started a pretty cool trial/promotion at our walmart for every $10 bucks you spend at a Walmart store on the bottom of the receipt you get a point/download ticket. So if you spend 100 bucks you could get 10 free songs... pretty cool, I don't know how many more walmarts are doing this around the country.

I really think the whole thing is tied around the coolness of the ipod. I actually have 4 mp3 players ive bought in the last 2 years. For some reason the only one I'll buy any music for is the ipod I'm not sure why but I guess it's just turning into a lemming syndrome. Somehow the ipod is becoming the next windows even though it may not be the best people are going to keep using it. If Apple pumps out 100 to 200 million songs it's almost like software people don't want to switch platforms... if they have downloded that many aac fairplay encoded files they are stuck with the ipod platform like they were with their winblows software all those years back. Now that I think about it they are geniuses to use this closed format. Heck, windows closed their format years ago... and it worked.
 
Walmart has the downloads in Windows Media Player format. How could they compete with that? :)

(I would not buy a track to try it, I want to keep my Mac M$-free)
 
I have a pretty strong feeling that all these services that are springing up are going to edge out Apple if something is not done to prevent it. I hope they crank the volume up a few notches tomorrow.
 
kendall said:
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5199227.html

according to the stats at the URL above, iTunes has had a little less than twice the amount of downloads as Walmart but Walmart has only been open for 1/4 the amount of time as iTunes.

oh me, oh my? does iTunes finally have some competition? if the trend continues, Walmart should surpass iTunes before next year!

:eek:
Click to expand...
Oh my God, the sky is falling! Well, actually it is not. Did you know that Wal-mart just surpassed Blockbuster in video sales? I live at Wal-mart Ground Zero, but I don't see Blockbuster in decline. In fact, this town with two Movie Gallery (Wal-mart video) stores recently added Blockbuster. I don't see Blockbuster going away because Movie Gallery has no special advantage over Blockbuster. Its Kill Bill Vol. 1 DVD or Band of Brothers boxed set is the same as those sold eveywhere else. And what's more, Wal-mart can't beat any other major chain on price.

How does this relate to online music? Well, the most obvious thing is that Wal-mart can't beat Apple on price, at least not for the music that we really want to buy at any rate. And what's more, unlike the Vlasic pickle case, Wal-mart cannot force the artists to produce more product just to satisfy its own greed.

But music purchases are much more than economic activities. I am my music. The music that I buy and how I buy it define who I am. Wal-mart is not me, but Apple is. Right now, the iPod and the iTunes Music Store are the epitome of cool. Wal-mart is anything but cool. Apple is [not always accurately] noted for cool products at premium prices. With music downloads, however, Apple has the cool product at the same or lower prices.

I often shop at my local Wal-mart Supercenter because it has the best selection of stuff that I need. It stocks food products that are not available in any other store in my hometown. It's open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Of the three big stores in town, it is the only one that is open all night. Wal-mart drove mom and pop groceries, pharmacies, clothing stores, and hardware stores out of business because it enjoys significant advantages over them. In online music sales, it enjoys none of these advantages. It may succeed, but it will not be dominant in the online music market.
 
Ricky said:
I have a pretty strong feeling that all these services that are springing up are going to edge out Apple if something is not done to prevent it. I hope they crank the volume up a few notches tomorrow.
Click to expand...



Same here: while initially doing the tactics apple is doing now works, in the long term it dosen't! its been done before. There must be some changes or at least other software/device support to counter-attack that competition springing up. Also Eventually there will be many online music stores. And if apple does some how dominate market share? well it would almost entirely rely on iTunes itself.
To be honest i cant see avery single person in the world having an iPod unless of course the iPod opens its doors to the other iApps/services. thats my two cents.
 
the way i see it... i think sony seems really strong....

its quite obvious that the more online music stores u have. the more competition there is..

the important thing is that iTunes has a head start.
theyve established a strong customer base. they can build upon this .
apple allready has quite a few customers and increasing. in order to make these ppl change into another service, they should be offered somethin interesting... right now... its seems like noone has accomplished this.... and with iPod sales like this... change aint comin anytime soon !!!
 
FYI, I am something of a audio snob and I honestly can't tolerate the lower bit rate MP3s and other online audio, but I bought a few old tunes on iTunes this week (after reading this thread) and it was a A LOT OF FUN! I can't imagine anyone else coming up with as slick as an app as iTunes + iTunes music store. It is super easy, convenient and fast. This is one case where I think Apple's usability and UI design will really pay off in the competition. Speaking of which, would iTunes music store qualify as a "rich client" app? I think so, and it is such a nice change from web based apps.
 
Cat said:
The numbers apply to "subscribers or downloaders" not to the number of songs downloaded. I'd like to see those before yelling "Competition! WooHoo!".
Click to expand...

True, I subscribed, downloaded ONE song and realized my mistake. Now they can count me as a subscriber AND a downloaded, but I'll never download any music from there again...
 
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