INNOVATION, THE REAL ENEMY OF CAPITALISM

One of the things I've been waiting for as a massive fan of TheGadget, is a device that is a cell phone, MP3 player, and PDA all in one (if you could sneak a video camera, game console and movie player in there, I'd bear your children). Well, finally, Apple and Motorola have produced the ROKR, a cell phone and iPod in one. Thanks to the iPod's native ability to function mostly like a PDA, this ROKR would seem to be my ideal gadget, right? Wrong.

Why? Because Apple/Motorola hobbled the damn thing out of the gate.

Why? Because they're capitalists.

[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1567110,00.html|A cool article] from The Observer and Guardian.co.uk explains why:

There's no technological reason why the music module in the iPhone couldn't hold 500 or 1,000 songs rather than the current measly 100; but if it did, then sales of existing iPod models might be undermined.

Similarly, there's no obvious reason why tunes stored on the music module couldn't be used as ringtones for the phone module. But that would undermine the mobile operators' lucrative trade in ringtones. (And, boy, is it lucrative: you can buy a Coldplay track from iTunes for 99 cents; but the same track bought at ringtone rates would cost $25.)

And as for the idea of downloading tracks directly to the phone via the mobile network - well, don't even think about it. Apple makes money from selling iPods, network-ready personal computers and online music. Using the phone network would bypass the first two of those cash cows.

Pretty good point, huh? So, ultimately capitalism's biggest enemy is the innovation it claims to guarantee.

Hell, this argument puts the whole file sharing thing in a different light, too, doesn't it? It's pretty strange that those record companies or movie distributors don't just buy those computer companies (or merge with them) so that computers are no longer made that can rip CDs. I guess Apple and Motorola are thinking ahead of the game this time.

Be sure to check out [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1567110,00.html|that article]--it's a pretty good read.