Is the car the next great vista for operating system and PC hardware companies? Microsoft has teamed up with Ford, but Apple is leaving customers by the roadside when it comes to on board music.
According to Newsday, the in-vehicle OS vendors are getting nervous about Microsoft's potential to dominate the market. This begs the question, will Apple enthusiasts boycott a car company if they use a Microsoft OS?
Now that Apple is seemingly somewhat more open minded about iTunes, perhaps we'll see the growing ranks of dashboard hard drives systems (featured in cars from Chrysler, Lexus and others) be able to download iTunes so that you can permanently store your music in your car. While Jobs loosened up on DRM, there's still no word about licensing iTunes to hardware makers, which is a real opportunity lost for the company.
Similarly, the satellite radio companies have a great chance to make a lot of money by offering downloads of the music that is playing on their stations. Consumers would impulsively buy songs that are playing on their XM Radios if they could be saved to a hard drive. Instead of fighting against the music industry, they should join together and split the revenue.
