Apple Continues to Lead

iLounge writes about a recent reserch note from American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu that states "the tightly integrated combination of the iPod, iTunes and iTunes Music Store shows no sign of giving up ground to competing companies and formats."

Wu said, “Progress is being made by the Windows Media camp, but coordination and integration are proving difficult because of the many vendors involved including systems, semiconductor, software, content, and service providers, with their various agendas and diverse geographies."

On the topic of new iPods, Wu added, “We believe Apple could use the upcoming keynote by Steve Jobs at the Apple Expo 2005 event in Paris to make a significant announcement beyond just new iPods. We believe this could be new markets including music subscriptions and video and the ever-elusive Motorola iTunes cell phone."

This highlights the key benefit of Appe's closed system - they can control the final product and ensure the hardware works well and seamlessly with the software. They could probably make more money licensing their technology, but at what cost if the outcome is shoddy, hard-to-use products....