In addition, take a look at this earlier interview with Jason Herskowitz by Kyle Bylin regarding mainstream consumers and iTunes Radio.
Respondents shared their views on what gives Apple the greatest competitive advantage.
What Is Apple’s Greatest Competitive Advantage?
“It’s all about the one‐click purchase. Pandora is also majorly screwing up in the public’s eye — each move they make seems to just dig them deeper into lowering their favor-ability.”
— Henry Chatfield
“Let’s be honest, Apple has just been doing this longer than everyone else. The fact they just now launched radio doesn’t mean they haven’t had the market cornered for the past 10 years.”
— Chase Farmer
“One more time, integrations. Radio is what you turn on when you don’t really care what you listen to. It has to be a default for you, not something you explore. If they can integrate iOS with enough other devices (be they Apple or third party) for playback, they’ll win. And manufacturers should want to work with them considering the size of the ecosystem — it really comes down to cost (Apple charges a pretty penny to anyone who wants to build devices around or with their technology).”
— Ty White, Pepperland Labs
“Apple has the audience and a history of rapid innovation. Pandora has been slow to innovate.”
—Bruce Houghton, Hypebot/Skyline Music
“Apple’s competitive advantage is what they actually do, not what Pandora cannot. The fact they are already in the homes and pockets of more people than any other brand gives them scale and ability to streamline the software. Also the millions of iTunes accounts gives them a userbase to provide a service, as opposed to creating a service AND creating a userbase.”
— Amber Horsburgh, Big Spaceship
“Apple can afford to make as little or lose as much money as it needs in Radio to sell more iDevices or iCloud subscriptions.”— C.Y. Lee, xDJs
“Apple is the closest thing to a monopoly of music that the world has seen. They have the largest music store in the world, they control the software that delivers music (traditionally via download and now via iTunes radio) and they have the device that listens to the music. They even make the earbuds that people use to listen to the music. The only thing they don’t make is the music itself (if you don’t count Fiona Apple).”
“If you as a casual listener can go and buy an iPhone or iPod turn it on, and listen to great music immediately without paying for anything, you will probably be pretty happy. People talk about 1‐click buying on iTunes, but it’s much, much more simple than that.”
— Tony Hymes, Whyd
