As predicted, Apple decided it didn't want a competitor piggybacking off its software, and the latest update to iTunes prevents Apple's iconic media-management app from recognizing the Palm Pre.
It ain't pretty, but it works: the Zune software automatically indexes songs in your iTunes library.
Pre customers have a couple of workarounds--DoubleTwist, a free app that will sync media from your Mac or PC to almost any device, sounds particularly promising. (Bonus: it was created by DVD Jon, who's been tweaking digital-media control schemes since before the iPod was born.)
But that doesn't help Palm, who recognizes that having a strong digital media story is key to competing in the consumer smartphone space. Here's my suggestion: instead of being drawn into a cat-and-mouse game with Apple, Palm should build (or acquire) its own digital media sync software, and make sure it indexes every file in the user's iTunes library. This is what Microsoft did with the Zune software (PC-only, of course, this being Microsoft), and while it's not a perfectly elegant solution--it doesn't carry playlists over, for example--it solves the problem of getting your tunes out of iTunes and onto the device of your choice.
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Back in January, I criticized Palm for not having a reasonable music strategy for the upcoming Pre, the touch-screen superphone that could save the company. At that time, I mocked Palm for suggesting that consumers would have to drag and drop music files from their PC to the Pre, which would appear as a mass storage device. As I wrote, "without iTunes, there's no iPhone. And without the iPhone, there's no consumer smartphone audience." (Users will also be able to buy downloads over the air with an Amazon MP3 client, but the vast majority of music on portable devices comes from the user's computer, not downloads.)
It looks like Palm took my criticism to heart: Thursday at the D7: All Things D conference, the company demonstrated the Pre and announced that its media sync capability would be built around...iTunes. That's right: when you plug the phone into your computer and hit the "media sync" button, it will launch iTunes and begin letting you transfer any DRM-free files to the phone. You'll still be able use iTunes to rip and store and organize your music, to sync it with any iPods you have, and to buy downloads. Why try to reinvent the wheel and risk disaster? Heck, why not go all the way and let iPhone applications run on the thing as well?
There's only one problem: what if Apple decides that it doesn't want a competitor using the software it built and developed? Could Apple force Palm into the sort of arms race that RealNetworks experienced when it tried to reverse-engineer iTunes' DRM scheme?
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Palm's Pre won CNET's Best of CES award for 2009, and is getting tons of love from around the tech world.
Not a bad accomplishment for a smartphone with a completely new operating system, from a company written off as dead not long ago.
I wrote something like this about RIM's BlackBerry Storm and got some heat for it, but still...where's the music?
I don't mean that the Pre won't play music--of course it will. Palm even announced a deal with Amazon.com to let users buy music downloads without any intervention (cooperation? interference?) from the carrier, Sprint.
But let's recap why the iPhone became the first smartphone to capture the consumer imagination. Sure, its design had a lot of pleasant "just works" surprises, from the bright touch screen to the way the keypad autocorrects for big fingers. But a large reason is because Apple branded it as an extension of the iPod, which has become synonymous with mobile music.
When music fans were looking to consolidate from two devices (MP3 player, phone) to a single one, the "i" brand reassured them that they wouldn't get a second-class music experience.
Equally important: iTunes, the software with which every iPod user was already familiar. It's not perfect. I know people who hate it, particularly on the PC. But compare it with the proposed Pre experience, as covered by PC Magazine:
9.) How do you get music and video onto the Pre?
You can drag and drop it over from your PC using USB mass storage, or buy songs on the device using a built-in Amazon MP3 Store client.
My immediate reaction upon reading those three little words, "drag and drop"? Yecch. No sync? No library? No rating system? No playlists, preset or automatic? No way to view and change information about songs?
Here's the thing: without iTunes, there's no iPhone. And without the iPhone, there's no consumer smartphone audience. I don't doubt that Palm (and RIM, for that matter) understand mobile communications and information management, and there's certainly a lot of room for improvement in business phones. But if I'm going to replace my MP3 player with a phone, these phones won't cut it.
That's why Microsoft's recent justification for the Zune--it helped the company learn how to build music management software and an online store--didn't ring as false to me as it did to some other folks.
The device might be a failure. But whenever Microsoft rolls out its next-generation mobile-phone platform, at least it has a reasonable story for managing and buying music.
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