A few years ago, when web 2.0 was a new term and not beaten into the ground, an Apple Engineer told me that Apple does not understand the web. His example to me was iTunes. At the time he told me that he wanted iTunes to be more like Flickr and less like a retail store.
At the time I remember him being right. As time has gone on, he has become more and more right. I feel that iTunes is a good program, but it is missing the chance to be a great program. It is missing the chance to be a true music portal. It is missing the chance to be a true media portal.
Over the past couple of months I have really be into podcasts. The problem is that I use three different computers, My laptop, my desktop, and my work computer. WIth iTunes now I have three different lists of pod cases. A different lists on each computer. iTunes is an internet system. I should be able to have a single podcast list no matter what computer I am on. Even if I do not have all the podcasts set to download on each computer.
I have an account on iTunes, but there is very little I can do with that account. Instead of creating a killer web app, Apple has create a store front. Many people might say that is all they need to created. If Apple created a killer web app they would have a way to increase their sales. It would be easy to see the benefit of sharing my iTunes collection with my friends. Being able to share information with myself would be a great tool. Now I have the same podcast on one than one machine.
I really think the web is the future. Software is going to be replace replaced by services. Hardware needs to take advantage of those services. Apple is both a hardware and a software company. They have made an incredible comeback over the last couple of year. I think they are leaving a lot on the table by not understanding the web.
Labels: apple, iTunes, podcast, social network, web, Web 2.0
