VentureBeat did a bang-up job at making sense of the Apple/Google/AT&T sniping over Google Voice:
Google Voice lets you use a single phone number to receive calls on multiple phones and reach your voicemail. It also lets you send free text messages and make international calls for two cents — features that would jeopardize AT&T’s traditional revenue streams. So there was a ruckus when Apple inexplicably didn’t list it in the app store and then went further to delete similar applications last month, prompting an FCC inquiry.
VentureBeat also reports that in a letter to the FCC, Apple states that Google Voice would “alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality.”
This reads like the understatement of the year. Free texting? 2 cent/min International phone calls? One phone number for everything? Ask yourself, is this something you would take for a test-drive? I think most of us would and it’s no surprise that Apple feels, well … threatened.
Pandora, the excellent internet radio offering, officially settled its music royalties issue and will not be closing up shop, which is great news for consumers. Indeed, Pandora has gained great popularity via its web product and its iPhone/iPod app is one of the most popular applications out there. According to the AP:
Under the agreement, large commercial webcasters will pay copyright owners up to 25 percent of their revenue or a “per-performance” rate that is below the rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board. Smaller webcasters will pay either a percent of revenue or a percent of expenses.
This is fairly good news for users of Pandora, but what of their revenue stream? I’ve always felt that Internet radio has a real opportunity – people are very passionate about their music and for many, it’s a personal and private choice. Ever notice how people don’t always like to talk about their favorite bands or artists?
Good marketing research can map those choices of bands and artists to lifestyles and life-stages. Now that the royalty issue has been cleared, I hope to see Pandora do some aggressive lifestyle marketing with the deep variety and metrics needed to connect marketers with their user-base.
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