Amazon is taking on music sales in a new fashion as they plan to go after Apple iTunes and capitalize on the iPod adoption phenomenon by offering music downloads according to a WSJ report. There are a number of perspectives floating around the blogosphere about this strategic move by Amazon. Here are a few posts that I found had interesting views:
I feel like this is definitely going to be an uphill battle that will tax Amazon. They will have to offer a better product, cost savings and other incentives to users to make them switch from their current music provider. The biggest obstacle may have to do with format compatibility issues. If Amazon were to make it easy for a user to port over all existing iTunes music or even add music directly to iTunes from an Amazon purchase I feel they will have a better chance for success. Of course Amazon could take the alternate approach and try and put up compatibility barriers as Napster, iTunes and a few others have done in an effort to herd and lock up users. iTunes is already winning this game as the countdown to download number 1 billion is upon us. Good luck Amazon.
*Image thanks to xaraxone.com
