The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
Finally: We can now use a wireless device (other than a laptop PC) to access iTunes while on-the-go, browse the music store, preview tracks, and purchase songs.
- Downloads at Will: The Wi-Fi Store is an important innovation: It makes buying music so much more impulsive, so much convenient, and even so much more social than before. Imagine being at a party, hearing a song, and thinking you want to own it. Now, you can just whip out the iPod Touch, connect to the iTunes store over Wi-Fi (assuming you have a connection), and buy the song, right on the spot. About time--especially given how so many mobile carriers are now in the game of letting you download music on the fly (too bad the selections tend to be narrow, and the prices sky-high).
- The Starbucks Connection: Fascinating announcement, that one about the partnership with Starbucks. I'm harsh, though: Considering the deal was in the works for over two years, I'm surprised it's going to take Starbucks as long as it will to roll out the service to its 5,000-some-odd Wi-Fi enabled stores. Given time, once it's up and running full-tilt nationwide by 2009, I can see the Starbucks in-store music identification and purchase ability becoming something of a socio-cultural experience, in the way that Venti lattes are now part of the cultural lexicon.
- Identifying Music?: The Starbucks deal is fine and great if you're in a Starbucks, but what if you're out and about elsewhere and want to identify and download a track? Happens all the time to me, which is why I love the concept of Gracenote's Mobile MusicID service--and I was sorry to hear that the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store didn't support this service (or something like it) for locations outside of Starbucks' sphere. Sure, the Touch lacks a microphone so the device can't capture music . . .but what if it could? That would be the ultimate marriage: Taking a service that can identify tracks by their waveform, and then matches you up to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store so you can buy those tracks. Sigh. Maybe next time 'round we'll get this feature.
In Summary
While the Nano is appealing for its diminutive size and uber-light weight, the iPod Touch and the 160GB iPod Classic both will transform the portable media player market in a way that competing devices can't come close to doing.
These two products are clearly the most compelling announcements of the bunch (though the Wi-Fi Music Store makes waves of its own). Both will help Apple achieve what it needed to do after two years of semi-inertia in hardware design and updates--they will entice existing iPod owners to buy a new device.
More Details on Today's Announcements
For more details on all today's Apple announcements, including price drops on the iPhone and new Shuffles, please read our Today@PCWorld blog.
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