http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jan/08hp.html HP and Apple Partner to Deliver Digital Music Player and iTunes to HP Customers LAS VEGAS, Consumer Electronics Show, January 8, 2004—Working to provide consumers with the most compelling digital content whenever and wherever they desire, HP and Apple® today announced a strategic alliance to deliver an HP-branded digital music player based on Apple’s iPod™, the number one digital music player in the world, and Apple’s award-winning iTunes digital music jukebox and pioneering online music store to HP's customers. As part of the alliance, HP consumer PCs and notebooks will come preinstalled with Apple’s iTunes® jukebox software and an easy-reference desktop icon to point consumers directly to the iTunes Music Store, ensuring a simple, seamless music experience. This offering is yet another way that HP is helping consumers enjoy more from their personal digital entertainment content. “HP’s goal is to bring the most compelling entertainment content and experiences to our customers,” said Carly Fiorina, chairman and chief executive officer at HP. “We explored a range of alternatives to deliver a great digital music experience and concluded Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes music service were the best by far. By partnering with Apple, we have the opportunity to add value by integrating the world’s best digital music offering into HP’s larger digital entertainment system strategy.” “Apple's goal is to get iPods and iTunes into the hands of every music lover around the world, and partnering with HP, an innovative consumer company, is going to help us do just that,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “As the industry balkanizes by offering digital music wrapped in a multitude of incompatible proprietary technologies, consumers will be reassured in getting the same unparalleled digital music solutions from both HP and Apple, two leaders in the digital music era.” According to internal HP research, more than 54 percent of current HP consumers download music to their PCs. Over two million iPods have been sold since its introduction, solidifying its position as the number one digital music player in the world. All iPods work seamlessly with the award-winning iTunes digital music jukebox software and the iTunes Music Store, which has sold more than 30 million songs, providing music fans with the best digital music experience on either a Mac® or Windows PC. The iTunes Music Store offers Windows and Mac users a music catalog of more than 500,000 songs, the same “gold standard” personal use rights and the same 99 cents-per-song pricing. The iTunes Music Store features online gift certificates for family and friends; Apple’s innovative and patent-pending online “Allowance” feature, which allows parents to automatically deposit funds into their kids’ iTunes Music Store account every month; more than 5,000 audiobooks, which can be purchased with one click and listened to on a Mac or Windows computer as well as on iPods; Celebrity Playlists; and new exclusive tracks from more than 60 artists. The iTunes Music Store offers music from all five major music companies and over 200 independent music labels. Pricing & Availability HP’s digital music player is expected to become available this summer and be competitively priced to other digital music players currently available. Beginning this summer, the iTunes software and a desktop icon guiding users to the music site will be preloaded on HP Pavilion, Media Center and Compaq Presario desktop and notebook consumer PCs. ------------------------------------ Any thoughts? I think this could be a smart move for Apple, what with all the recently announced online music stores and players.
Damn, Steve Jobs is so freakin' smart. He's lining up sponsorships with Pepsi and alliances with the RIAA and HP. Great for Apple.
Heypartner and Apple partner selling iPods together? I would think heypartner would be a not effective spokesman for music.
That battery thing is a concern for me. It's nice that they offer a replacement service now, but it seems a little pricey (though it's $99 now, rather than the $255 mentioned at that link).
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/mac911/archives/2003/12/000014. Assault on Batteries The day's news tells me that a law firm in San Francisco is considering a class action lawsuit against Apple over the longevity of the iPod's lithium-ion batteries. It seems that these batteries (like other batteries of their ilk) eventually give up the ghost after being recharged several hundred times. As it's a little difficult to effectively roll one's eyes on a webpage without invoking the worst sort of smiley, I'll pass on the editorial and offer this advice: If your iPod's battery has lost its poop, you have ways other than joining what will likely be a fruitless lawsuit to address the problem. The least expensive option is to replace the battery yourself. There are a couple of outfits -- PDASmart and Laptops-For-Less -- that offer replacement batteries. PDASmart sells batteries for only the first two generations of iPods at $59 a pop (for $69, PDASmart will replace the battery for you). Laptops-For-Less sells batteries for all three iPod generations for $49 each (sold on a do-it-yourself-and-godspeed basis only). Both companies include instructions for opening the iPod as well as the implements necessary to do the job. I might mention that it's not terribly difficult to open a first- or second-generation iPod. Cracking the current third-generation iPod, though, is about as easy as extracting your own kidney. There's a very real danger that you'll break your little digital buddy in the process (yup, I've done it). If you have such a 3G iPod, you may instead wish to have Apple replace the battery. Recently the company began offering a battery replacement service for $99 (plus shipping and sales tax). When Apple replaces the battery it returns to you a "functionally equivalent" iPod. That means that you won't get back the same iPod that you sent in. It will be the same model but not the one that you once clasped to your bosom. Fear not, those of you with engraved iPods. In the case of personalized iPods (and no, an iPod that you've personally etched with a knitting needle to read "Metallica Rules!" doesn't count), Apple will remove the back plate and put it on the iPod it returns to you.
Am I losing my mind or did he just say something about proprietary technologies? Brr uh... aaan... uhh... ding? Apple? Wow. Welcome to the 21st century Apple. If there's one guy that's a better BS'er than Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs is it.
Instead of Apple being the only company to offer their proprietary format, now it will be Apple and HP. I know I feel better about two companies, rather than just one, using the same proprietary technology. Now instead of HP and Microsoft, we have HP and Apple. Boy, that changes everything.
Great news to hear. Hopefully that means cheaper MP3 players for us consumers. God I want an Ipod soooo badly
Third party iPod replacement batteries can be had for half of Apple's price. Like all other comapnies they don't advertise what the opposition are offering. The people responsible for ipodsdirtysecret are ambitious filmmakers who were out to make a name for themselves. How much credibility do these people have? I'd rather scour usenet for negative personal reviews rather than trust that sensationalised website. BTW if you want a cheaper mp3 player it won't be an iPod.
That's what that one dude said in the article I posted. Eighteen months is probably on the short side for the original battery to wear out, too. I have plenty of Li-Ion batteries that work fine for longer periods of time than that.
Apple's DRM is proprietary, but not the audio format. AAC is a part of the MPEG-4 specification (I believe), and in fact Real is using AAC for it's own music store. Hopefully this will see the end of WMA files. By the way, AAC is not a free format, like Ogg Vorbis, but rather a technology that needs licencing, like MP3.
