Advice for Sony: build a wireless iPod clone
Now that Sony is finally getting with the program and coming out with a hard drive MP3 player to compete with iPod (at least, that's what they keep saying they're going to do), John Alderman says that one way the Japanese giant could get a leg-up on Apple would be to go wireless:
If Sony—or another company—can build a wireless delivery system that bypasses the ties to PCs, say, by hosting the music management system and providing assured access to your music, wherever you may be, that system could leapfrog Apple as Apple has done to Sony. Never having to worry about replacing a scratched CD sounds good now, and in a few years, as iTunes music buyers have changed jobs, and switched computers, not worrying about replacing the music files they forgot to de-authorize will sound just as compelling.
Which sounds about right to us. We've never been too keen on the whole Digital Rights Management thing in the first place (we want buy music and just own it, not an arcane array of rights to it), but if we're ever going to accept it, it needs to be a lot less PC-centric. There's really no good reason why consumers shouldn't be able to buy songs directly from the iTunes Music Store with their iPod over a wireless connection, like if they're out at a Starbucks and just feel like downloading some new tunes.
