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The News Corp.-owned social networking super-site, which maintains over 300 million user accounts, has held talks with all four of the major record labels in recent weeks, the financial paper said.
The service, tentatively dubbed MySpace Music, would reportedly offer both a free ad-supported streaming music model and paid MP3 downloads, which could be played on any digital music player, including Apple's iPod.
In its report, the Journal speculates that MySpace's recent partnership with online video service Hulu, a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp.'s Fox unit, could serve as an example of how the networking site would implement a music service.
However, the paper notes that Universal Music and MySpace are locked in a copyright-infringement lawsuit that would most likely need to be settled before any agreement could be reached on a new service.
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But while the patent was under review, Apple had developed its own similar concept for iTunes Custom Cards. Unlike its past general-purpose gift cards for the iTunes Store, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company's then-new cards allowed shoppers to buy a card for a specific artist's album or song, complete with custom artwork.
This apparently direct comparison led to legal pressure from the Driessens, who asked Apple to license the patent once it had been granted -- only to learn after discussions that Apple had simply pulled the iTunes cards from stores in the US, leaving the products on UK shelves alone and the Driessens without the possibility of a licensing deal.
An illustration of the Driessens' patent on gift cards.
To the plaintiffs' surprise, however, Apple appears to have simply resurrected the American version of the concept under a different name more than a year later, in November 2007. Called a Digital Release Album, the card was once again tied to a specific iTunes song or complete record.
An iTunes Digital Release, from 2007 (top); iTunes Custom Cards, from 2005 (bottom).
In releasing these cards, the Driessens say, Apple is simply hoping to skip royalties by implying that customers can claim songs with a notebook computer, iPhone, or iPod using the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at a local Starbucks coffee shop, bypassing the need to return home. Though superficially different, this is just an infringement of the patent under a new name, the lawyers argue.
Starbucks is said to be a complicit partner in the infringement as a willing distributor, selling the cards across the US and holding its "Song of the Day" promotion to encourage purchases of the allegedly infringing iTunes cards.
Apple has not publicly responded to the charges made in the lawsuit, which would bring the complaint to a jury trial and ask for triple the normal damage compensation as well as issue a permanent injunction barring both Apple and Starbucks from selling the offending cards. However, it's notable that Apple's WI-Fi Store sites aren't believed to have referenced the cards, and in current form only spur customers to buy directly from iTunes itself.
Separately this week, Apple was also subject to another suit with seemingly fewer merits, this time manifesting itself in the form of a four-page complaint by John Martin of Rockford, Illinois.
The plaintiff in this second lawsuit accuses the iPhone maker of infringing on a patent for controlling an electronic game system with a finger-release touchscreen serving as the control mechanism. In selling one or more similar products -- which are unnamed in the document but may include the iPhone and iPod touch -- Apple is knowingly drawing on at least some of the patent for its own unlawful gain, Martin's representing law firm says.
As with the Driessen suit, this new case would block Apple from selling any of the alleged infringing products and would look for both royalties as well as "enhanced damages" to compensate for the perceived losses.
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The apparently reluctant concession would follow weeks of steep decline in support for the optical disc standard, which began with Warner Bros.' switch to Blu-ray as its exclusive HD movie format just ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Since then, Best Buy and Netflix have both chosen Blu-ray as their de facto choice for HD movies, relegating HD DVD to second-tier status and threatening to discontinue it entirely in the case of Netflix.
Several independent movie studios have also followed Warner's lead in opting for Blu-ray, with only Paramount and Universal now left as HD DVD supporters.
Just hours later, however, the likelihood of an HD DVD resurgence was dimmed even further by an official announcement by Wal-Mart that it would focus solely on Blu-ray. A statement issued by the big-box retailer on Friday revealed that the company would reorganize shelf space at all its Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores within 30 days to promote Blu-ray alone. HD DVD products will exit the company's product channel entirely by June.
Wal-Mart's decision is anticipated to be especially damaging to HD DVD's prospects, as the nationwide chain is often regarded as the single largest video sales outlet in the US and is sometimes cited as a potential obstacle to widespread adoption of online movie downloads through its influence over movie studios' pricing.
And while Toshiba officially remains confident in HD DVD, its frequent partner Microsoft has itself seemingly scaled back its normally vocal endorsement of the beleaguered storage medium, says the Reporter. The Windows developer's technology evangelist for HD DVD, Kevin Collins, has reportedly failed to respond to multiple requests for comments.
Apple has largely kept to the sidelines during the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD, providing small amounts of support to both camps while declining to build either technology into its Mac range.
Through the new
Report: 400,000 unlocked iPhones loose on Chinese network
Published: 05:10 PM EST
Nearly half of the 800,000 to 1 million iPhones that are believed to have been unlocked for distribution and use outside Apple's sanctioned networks may be in China, according to a new report.
Market research firm In-Stat reported Friday that China Mobile, the nation's largest wireless carrier, said there were 400,000 unlocked iPhones using its cellular network service at the end of 2007, representing approximately 10 percent of the touchscreen handsets sold at the the time.
"The figure surprised us as it is fourfold of that we estimated before," the firm said. "We have never doubted that the iPhone will achieve greater success than iPod in China if Apple teams with China Mobile to launch its Chinese version."
The surge is credited to a fundamental difference between American and Chinese buyers. Where most US buyers confine smartphone purchases to the workplace, Chinese customers often use their phones for entertainment or Internet access, such as playing music or e-books. Apple's focus on this last usage pattern for the iPhone, especially with its user interface, makes it a logical fit for the market.
Chinese are also more likely to spend larger amounts of money on their phones, In-Stat says, despite lower average incomes. A full fifth of all phones sold in the southeast Asian country cost at least 4,000 Yuan Renminbi each, or $533.
Separate reports in recent days have pointed to China as the heart of a thriving gray market economy in unlocked iPhones. With as many as one million of these devices on the market around the world, the country is potentially a hotbed of supply chain leaks that sees iPhones reach unofficial hands before ever reaching territories officially slated to receive the shipments.
Analysts have wrestled with tracking the missing devices themselves and, in one case, estimated that the number of iPhones in use outside of Apple's official bounds could total 1.5 million, or more than a third of the entire supply as of last month.
In the short term, however, Apple is unlikely to convert this semi-underground trade into legitimate business. China Mobile, the dominant carrier in the country, claimed to have ended talks regarding an official iPhone in January. Company chief Steve Jobs later contradicted these claims and said that the provider had only made one visit to Apple headquarters to discuss the possibility of a Chinese iPhone.
Nearly half of the 800,000 to 1 million iPhones that are believed to have been unlocked for distribution and use outside Apple's sanctioned networks may be in China, according to a new report.
"The figure surprised us as it is fourfold of that we estimated before," the firm said. "We have never doubted that the iPhone will achieve greater success than iPod in China if Apple teams with China Mobile to launch its Chinese version."
The surge is credited to a fundamental difference between American and Chinese buyers. Where most US buyers confine smartphone purchases to the workplace, Chinese customers often use their phones for entertainment or Internet access, such as playing music or e-books. Apple's focus on this last usage pattern for the iPhone, especially with its user interface, makes it a logical fit for the market.
Chinese are also more likely to spend larger amounts of money on their phones, In-Stat says, despite lower average incomes. A full fifth of all phones sold in the southeast Asian country cost at least 4,000 Yuan Renminbi each, or $533.
Separate reports in recent days have pointed to China as the heart of a thriving gray market economy in unlocked iPhones. With as many as one million of these devices on the market around the world, the country is potentially a hotbed of supply chain leaks that sees iPhones reach unofficial hands before ever reaching territories officially slated to receive the shipments.
Analysts have wrestled with tracking the missing devices themselves and, in one case, estimated that the number of iPhones in use outside of Apple's official bounds could total 1.5 million, or more than a third of the entire supply as of last month.
In the short term, however, Apple is unlikely to convert this semi-underground trade into legitimate business. China Mobile, the dominant carrier in the country, claimed to have ended talks regarding an official iPhone in January. Company chief Steve Jobs later contradicted these claims and said that the provider had only made one visit to Apple headquarters to discuss the possibility of a Chinese iPhone.