Cat and iPad

Competition for finches playing guitars.

Apple's potential in home entertainment/content market

Speculative article on Apple's potential to dominate home computing, beating Microsoft and HP. Interesting that in the list of existing and future products and services that would put Apple in this position there is no explicit mention of the mobile phone:

• Apple Macintosh home PC
• Apple TV digital media extender
• Apple Store
• iTunes and its successors
• Apple home server product
• AppleSound universal music controller
• Network-enabled gadgets
• In-home installation services

I can see why not, but it's an interesting omission - still compartmentalising the phone and other ICT - particularly as smart phones currently have more computing power than set top boxes.

Music industry attempts digital catch up

Excellent BBC review of the music industry’s slow entry to on-line distribution notes how the difficulty of buying music from a mobile phone (even for early adopters) combines with compatibility and ownership issues to put people off.

Another stereotype shattered

According to research by Emap reported in today's Guardian, more women are buying music downloads than men. This reverses the early trend in music downloads when the market was mainly young men, downloading for listening on their PCs. Now MP3 players have made downloads useful to people who use their computers to do things, rather than simply do things on their computers.

According to the research downloads are particularly popular with women because they can sample music and make their selections without having to face the machismo of the male assistants in music shops.