According to BusinessWeek, Dell plans on taking aim at Apple and will unveil a solution that could see companies from a bunch of industries working together to create the first solution to give consumers real choice.
The idea will be unveiled in September and will attempt to give you more choice in how you buy and consume media, BusinessWeek reports. More importantly, Dell will give its partners the software they need to establish the solution and will try to turn a profit on the sale of hardware.
"Customers want access to content from a broad variety of sources--how, when, and where they choose," Michael Dell told the publication.
"Apple wants to lock you in," Robert Enderle said to BusinessWeek. "Dell wants to lock you in to choice."
But will all those choices translate into a profit and a new standard that will take iTunes and every other proprietary service down? Will buying a song on Amazon.com and sending "it to the mobile phone of a friend or the car stereo of someone who has satellite radio" really work?
Sure, it might appeal to us and I certainly think that's a neat idea, but based on the information we have, it sounds like there are too many moving parts and too many people involved in the decision-making to make this a viable service.
... Read moreAfter a process that took more than a year and officially set the record for the most ridiculous merger mulling in the history of the United States, the FCC finally approved the XM-Sirius merger by a 3-2 vote down party lines.
And although its treatment of this deal was bad enough over the past year and a half, the final outcome is even worse. It not only solidifies my belief that NAB has the ear of the FCC, but that both organizations are extremely concerned that satellite radio will finally become a major force in radio.
According to reports, "the companies agreed to a three-year cap on prices, set aside 8 percent of their channel capacity for minority and noncommercial programming, and agreed to pay $19.7 million for past FCC rule violations. The companies also agreed to bring interoperable radios to the market within a year."
On top of that, the FCC will embark on a new initiative to explore the possibility of including HD radio functionality into the XM and Sirius radios. That said, it didn't go so far as to make it a requirement just yet.
And while some believe that this deal is a major blow to terrestrial radio, I think that argument is hogwash. The reality of the situation is that XM and Sirius were led around by the nose while the FCC and companies like Clear Channel did everything they could to weaken the two firms.
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Over the past few years, technology legislation has become a major issue with lawmakers all over the world. Instead of focusing on issues that may be a bit more pressing, most laws or rulings have been aimed at making our tech-filled lives increasingly more daunting to enjoy.
In fact, during that time we have seen lawmakers institute ridiculous privacy laws, succumb to the pressures placed upon them by huge organizations and set dangerous precedents that have proved detrimental to the entire tech industry.
So bad are these developments that it is my belief that lawmakers themselves have set the tech industry back at least five years and have single-handedly ensured that the momentum of the industry is kept in check long enough for powerful organizations to find a way to stop it and profit off even the most trivial of circumstances.
For example, do we really need a law that prohibits the use of cell phones in cars? Sure, it makes sense to stop people from talking on phones while driving to some extent, but a slew of studies have shown that other activities like singing and smoking have proven to be just as dangerous. Will lawmakers remove radios and ashtrays from cars?
But the real issue is not that a woman is being charged over $9,000 for each song she allegedly "stole" from the recording industry or that the battle over Net Neutrality is still being waged even though none of the three presidential candidates even care. Instead, the real issue is that lawmakers are doing their part to ruin the tech industry as we know it.
... Read moreYesterday on CNET News.com, my colleague Richard Derfendorf wrote about the impending decision on the part of the FCC to either allow or deny the merger between XM radio and Sirius Satellite radio.
According to Derfendorf, the FCC is "inching closer" to making a decision on the deal and does not look "as daunting" as it once did. He went on to explain that some analysts believe the long wait (a little over 400 days) is actually working in the satellite companies' favor.
And while all that may be true, there's something going on behind the scenes that shouldn't be overlooked. The fact that XM and Sirius were forced to wait this long to finally receive a decision is both ridiculous and just plain wrong.
Unfortunately, you can bet ClearChannel Radio and other terrestrial monsters have something do with it.
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