gBox
August 21, 2007
Filed under Splashes, tech
Apple’s iTunes may be about to get knocked from its pedestal. Check out “gBox,” the creation of a collaboration between Universal and Google. What might put gBox on top? The fact that at least SOME of it’s music is sans copyright protection (meaning you don’t have to have an iPod or any other proprietary/overpriced player to listen to the music you purchase.
The odd thing about gBox is that it is being marketed not as much as a store to buy music but rather as a wish list program allowing other people to buy music for you (gBox = “gift Box”). I think the goal is to fill MySpace/Facebook/blogs/etc. with the wishlists thereby providing free advertising for gBox. May well be something that works out for them in the end.
posted by dolphin at 2:59 pm
Aren’t there better companies positionned to offer wish lists on social networks? Amazon, iTunes, Wal-Mart, and the social networks themselves.
Offering music without copyright protection is not a long term competitive differentiator. So I’m not sure how gBox will be able to survive.
Although collaborating with gBox, I suspect that Univeral and Google are partnering with others and that this is not an exclusive arrangement.
I wish gBox the best. But it sure looks like an uphill battle.
I think the question isn’t whether another company COULD do it better. I think the question is whether any other company IS doing it better. Thus far, I’ve not heard of anyone else promoting themselves via wish lists on social networking sites. Amazon does have their wishlists that can be posted though they don’t seem to promote doing so. Plus since gBox music can be purchased through Amazon, the Amazon Wish List, may just end up as another way of promoting gBox (or at the very least a source of revenue for gBox).
I’m not certain that lack of copyright protection ISN’T a long term competitive differentiator, provided they can market it correctly. There are plenty of folks out there who would love to use that $100+ MP3 player they bought only to find it wouldn’t play their iTunes downloads (if you doubt it, just google to see how many work-arounds people have come up with to strip the copy protection off of their music.
I think the biggest thing that will hurt gBox right now is the fact that their website seems a bit clunky. iTunes is fast and easy (especially being integrated directly into the player) whereas I found gBox to be fairly ugly, a little slow, and not super intuitive. Still, selling music (instead of selling the license to listen to music) could bring customers in droves, if it’s presented properly.