With apologies to Van Morrison and his song Waiting Game, but we need to see just how the Amazon service will work.

I may make purchases there If it is a simple matter of choosing a track or album, a one-click payment, and downloading the files that I can easily import into iTunes.

If I have to use some hokey program and go through all sorts of hoops then I probably would not use it.

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Sir Harry Flashman wrote:
With apologies to Van Morrison and his song Waiting Game, but we need to see just how the Amazon service will work.

I may make purchases there If it is a simple matter of choosing a track or album, a one-click payment, and downloading the files that I can easily import into iTunes.

I'm pretty sure its that last step that he is referring to. He proposes (and I tend to agree) that the need to import the files will be enough to discourage most users. That seems rediculous to people like us, but I can think of many people who would actually not want to have to deal with it (despite the fact that it is incredibly simple).

When has Piper Jaffray "analyst" (read puppet) analyzed anything negatively from Apple's perspective? Analyst = propaganda.

When has he been wrong so far? It's hard to call him a puppet when everything he says comes to pass.
However, despite that I think his analysis on this one falls flat. But that doesn't make him a puppet.

When was the last time we had a thread that didn't insult analysts? Mac fanboy = propaganda.

Is it really that difficult to import songs into iTunes? I would think that iTunes has been designed efficiently enough for me to import my mp3 collection into it. Is this something terribly difficult to do? And if so, wouldn't that be a barrier to adopting iTunes in the first place? It would seem that either a) it's too hard to use iTunes with mp3s, so users wouldn't adopt it in the first place, or b) it's easy to use iTunes with mp3s and so this will not be a barrier to using the Amazon store.

Also, this confuses me... "Given the fact that Amazon will not offer a bette selection, there will be no compelling reason for users to switch to Amazon," he said. How can we consider that a fact when we don't even know how the store will work or what is going to be included?

I would think that if there is a wave coming of demand for DRM-free music, and the labels will eventually have to give in, then Amazon entering the market is good for the labels and consumers, but bad for Apple. Competition will mean the two stores will need to compete on pricing. Amazon, already being a proven online store with fantastic name recognition will be able to offer the labels a better deal to get it signed than Apple has been willing to give the labels.