Apple has its limits

Steve Jobs gets to feel, what do Bill Gates a long time: Success is not necessarily popular.

Talk about timing: In a few days, Apple boss Steve Jobs in San Francisco appear before the press and, it is rumored to introduce the latest collection of iPods. More beautiful and better conjurers are natural, maybe cheaper, maybe even more expensive, the rumors are chefs from the blogger community is not there quite agree, probably, but the sixth-generation iPods have larger screens, so you can play videos better.

And just at that moment it crashes quite formidable between Apple and NBC Universal, one of the major content suppliers for the iTunes store. The Hollywood company demands more money and threatens to make hit shows like "Heroes" and "Battlestar Galactica" from the iTunes inventory. Although Apple sells far more music than TV series - in the first half of a billion songs, compared with about 50 million TV shows, estimates Forrester Research. But nearly 40 percent of all programs that are downloaded on iTunes, come from NBC.

So far, every show will cost $ 1.99, regardless of which transmitter popular, no matter what. NBC apparently does not fit the bill: The company wanted, according to Apple to ask for $ 4.99 per episode. That would be about $ 100 for an entire season, which typically consists of 22 to 24 episodes. In other words, NBC wants to cash in on iTunes twice to three times what the same shows usually bring to DVD.

That's greedy and insolent, no question. But Apple has to fight with NBC, and therefore insist on its own terms? Why not try it, if there are actually people who are willing to pay top five U.S. dollars (currently € 3.70) of an item on the table, they charge also could look elsewhere - as usual in the evening? (. The only other country where Apple does offer TV series, is now the UK - where each item will cost 1.89 pounds, about 2.80 €) If there are only a few, NBC will surely soon relent on its own, so in the market economy.

I'm not sure why Apple instead it uses a gauntlet tactic. The simplest explanation seems Steve Jobs' desire to be famous, or infamous, to control the entire Apple offer itself, and even the smallest details. All those who want to work with the 52-year-old computer pioneer, must be prepared to them the conditions are dictated - the iPhone partner AT & T did not even look like the device would, as the contract was signed, and also T According to FTD-Mobile was one of enormous concessions.

But recently is stirring opposition. The record bosses began to grumble at first. 99 cents per song, in the U.S. as in Europe, rich, them long gone, and they want already sufficiently correct when it hits and sometimes may even sell off Clerks. Apple argues that flexible rates would only confuse, and is being stubborn. Result: In July, announced that Universal Music, the world's largest music company, Apple's friendship. Once the current contract expires, to songs by artists such as Eminem, Sting and Gwen Stefani are only available from case to case with iTunes. At the same time wants to offer its Universal music for free elsewhere, such as the site Spiralfrog, which hopes to finance itself through advertising.

This will bring jobs to barely sleep: iTunes has captured a market share of about 80 percent, which means that four out of five songs that are purchased digitally derived from the Apple store.

Who is so strong, who believes himself so superior, probably sees no reason to make concessions and negotiate. But Jobs would be well advised to think back to times when he had once felt very safe and superior in its role as a pioneer and market leader. That was in 1981 when IBM introduced its first own PC and therefore pushed forward on a territory that Apple had been largely for themselves. ".. Welcome, IBM, Seriously" Apple rang out full-page ads - the market is big enough to be called that, and anyway we know better what people want.

So you can be wrong. Apple today that it even still exist, that the company is more successful than ever, it certainly owes mainly to their boss and co-founder Steve Jobs. But now it needs to be seen whether the man who was smart enough not to imprison the iPod in the Macintosh niche, is also smart enough to keep the peace with its partners.

Lack of competition does not exist - for example, Nokia has just launched its own download service, but there is a lack of new partners. The movie offer from the iTunes store (in any case can only be found in the U.S.) is still rather meager. While the record labels were initially quick to join in on iTunes to see if there was a remedy against music pirates, Hollywood holds back noticeably. The films in the Apple video store stem mainly from a single studio: Walt Disney.

Whose largest shareholder is Steve Jobs. With the least there should be no trouble in working.