BREAKING: hacker nerd who has had nothing to do with Apple for 3 decades takes positions markedly different from Apple orthodoxy.
Woz always takes very predictably pro-hacker positions; I'm not clear why we regard it as news when he does.
Woz always takes very predictably pro-hacker positions; I'm not clear why we regard it as news when he does.
What direction? He has no influence on Apple's decision.
But in a few years time when Google have similar deals in place and any advantage is marginal (if that), it might happen. While Apple aren't really in the business of selling music (obviously they do but it's a relatively small part of their revenue mix next to hardware sales) there is an opportunity there.
That said over time as these deals become more common, the music business is going to be commoditised which will squeeze profit margins. It may be that those lower margins mean that even with access to a significantly larger potential market Apple aren't interested - they've never really been a high volume, low margin business.
As I said it is hard to say what would happen and by how much.
Go read the front page right now. Do it. Half the items on there are just stuff that people want to talk about. Notch's new office (oooooohhh!). Yet another Apple/Samsung article (woah!). The 256th python tutorial (wheee!)... Maybe just get over it, hmmm?