Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

Real issued a statement today in response to Apple’s unhappiness over Real’s hack into the iPod. Let’s take a look at relevant parts of Real’s statement and dissect them.

“[We are] delighted by initial consumer and music industry support for Harmony. Compatibility, choice and quality are critically important to consumers and Harmony provides all of these to users of the iPod and over 70 other music devices including those from Creative, Rio, iRiver, and others.

When users purchased their iPod, they chose not to purchase a player that was compatible with Real. If Real compatibility is important, there are allegedly over 70 other players to choose from. Certainly some of these users could have found a Real-compatible player they liked as much or more than the iPod - many users already do.

RealPlayer Music Store provides the highest sound quality of any download music service. That’s why so many consumers have welcomed news of Harmony. Consumers, and not Apple, should be the ones choosing what music goes on their iPod.”

Huh? Apple has never chosen the music that goes on anyone’s iPod. Apple may provide a selection through iTunes, but any user is free at any time to put whatever MP3-encoded music they want on their iPod, without Real or Apple anywhere in the process. WTF is Real talking about?

I have no comment about the precedent or legality of Real’s hack. It’s a confusing issue and I don’t have an adequate understanding of the law that allows me to make any intelligent comments. (I know, I know…) I simply cannot understand what makes Real think this is a good move. Apple will probably find some reason to sue them, and that will be expensive. It’s been shown time and again that there is no money, or very little money, to be made purely by online music sales, and if Real were to make a profit, that’s likely to be offset by legal costs incurred by Apple’s suit. Despite what Real said in the quote above, there is almost no demand for Real-provided music on the iPod. The reality is, users already chose against Real when they purchased an iPod to begin with, although Real obviously ignores this fact and the fact that users are free to put any MP3 from any source on their iPod at any time - the iPod is not limited only to downloads from iTunes.

Everything Real has done is incredibly stupid and makes no sense.