Real CEO Likens Apple’s iPod Business To Soviet Model

April 20th, 2004 at 3:00 PM - News by Bryan Chaffin

Real CEO Rob Glaser is continuing with his public comments about Apple. Last week, the New York Times reported that Mr. Glaser was seeking an alliance with Apple against Microsoft and the Windows Media Player platform, an offer which Real then publicly said Apple CEO Steve Jobs had rejected. Perhaps in reaction to that rejection, Mr. Glaser called Appleis iPod/iTunes Music Store business model "kind of a Soviet model." From a ZDNet article:

"Itis kind of a Soviet model," said Glaser, referring to Appleis closed environment in a remark that drew laughter from the audience at the annual National Association of Broadcasters conference here. "Taking secure music off the PC is a morass of incompatibility. This is not going to fly in the mainstream market."

[...]

The company had approached Apple CEO Steve Jobs with a proposal to create a technical alliance that would allow customers of RealNetworksi music service to play songs on the iPod, to no avail. That could now force RealNetworks into a deeper relationship with archenemy Microsoft, which has won support for its technology on dozens of players and plans a major upgrade later this summer.

Glaser also advised Hollywood to avoid being too cautious in licensing its movies to Internet services, a mistake that could lead to a repeat of the music industryis run-in with online piracy at the hands of Napster and other peer-to-peer applications. Although legal film-download services are available today, they are hampered by limitations, including strict viewing rules for downloaded files, weak access to the latest films, and skimpy film libraries online.

Thereis more information in the full article at ZDNet.