Who needs a scorecard for these players?
: Rob Glaser and Real are gunning for Steve Jobs and Apple, trying to portray Apple as the big, bad corporate monster trying to mess with consumers’ freedom.
Tough sell, Rob.
The problem is that Real has messed with its consumers since the beginning. Your software sucks. You make it impossible to find your free product and trick people into buying the product they don’t want to and then you try to make it even more impossible to cancel that product. Your buggy software completely messed up my Treo and I’m not going to risk you messing up my iPod. Rob, your credibility with consumers is swiss-cheesey.
Apple, meanwhile, is the first company to make digital music work. Apple did what you couldn’t do, Rob.
But having failed to come off as Prince Charming against Dark Prince Bill Gates, Glaser is trying the same poor-pitiful-me shtick against Jobs. He has an ad campaign out today. He started a blog (amusingly, with a new spelling of “blogisphere,” not that I’m here to defend that word) and the promise of a weekly Q&A with Glaser called “Rock on[,] Rob.” He’s also trying to undercut the entire industry with 49-cent songs, admitting that he’s losing money on every sale. Good for those who get cheap songs. But spite does not a product — or a business plan — make.
: UPDATE: Rafat Ali reports that Real took down comments from the Real blog. The comments reportedly weren’t flattering.
