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Research Co.: 'iTunes Could Be Apple's "Trojan Horse"'

Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 5:10 PM - by

ABI Research recently issued a report that focuses on high-end AV receivers, multi-room audio systems, and iPod accessories within the home. Research director Vamsi Sistla said in a press release: "The battle for portable devices has already been won by iPod (unless Microsoft's strategy for its Zune platform succeeds) but in the home and mobile markets, the prize is still up for grabs. iTunes could be a 'Trojan Horse' through which Apple can enter the home market sooner than the competition."

While many home audio-video products exist that support the iPod, Mr. Sistla suggested that more of them will start adding iTunes support as well, enabling users to draw from the iTunes libraries stored on their computers, in addition to the audio, video, and still image files already on their iPods.

While the report, "Home and Portable Audio Device Markets," offers an emphasis on iPod and iTunes, it also looks at the future of home and portable audio technologies in general. The report sells for US$4,200.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:22 pm

$4,200???

I'm going to write a report on "Obvious observations sold by ABI Research".

You can buy a copy of this report for the iPod Observer special price of $20.00

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:24 pm

I think at this point everyone knows that Apple is playing around with different Intel chips and experimenting with new kinds of devices. File this report under "stating the obvious."

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1922 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:27 pm

Sorry but calling iTunes a Trojan Horse is an absurdly bad choice of words. In the computer world a Trogan Horse is an extremely bad thing that will damage or destroy your computer. Whomever wrote this for ABI Research has little grasp of the computer world making his opinions suspect to say the least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_horse_program

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:18 pm

geoduck wrote:
Sorry but calling iTunes a Trojan Horse is an absurdly bad choice of words. In the computer world a Trogan Horse is an extremely bad thing that will damage or destroy your computer. Whomever wrote this for ABI Research has little grasp of the computer world making his opinions suspect to say the least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_horse_program

Geoduck, maybe they meant a Trojan Horse as in the sense of the "Horse of Troy", so its a very clever use of words. The horse of troy enabled the Greek to conquer the Trojans - hence iTunes could dominate the home audio environment! Maybe ABI Research have got a better grasp on Classical History than yourself and have very valid opinions!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse

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mahuti said:

member since 09 Jan 2003 with 377 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:09 pm

Guest, I'm sure he knows about both Trojan Horses... your comments are missing the obvious. This article isn't about ancient history, it's about computers and technology in which Trojan Horses have no good connotations.

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LaurieF said:

member since 15 Jun 2001 with 3547 posts, TMO Forum Mod, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:38 pm

Consider though who the report is aimed at:

  • CE OEMs

  • Portable device vendors

  • Record labels and music catalog owners

  • Audio IC and component vendors

  • Networking IC vendors

  • PC and networking equipment OEMs
At no point does it make any reference to specifically computer-related areas, certainly not towards operating systems; it's primarily aimed at the AV market.

Hence I personally don't have any problem with the use of the term 'Trojan Horse' - in fact the Homeric reference is what I first, and last, thought of when I read it.

I agree that if it were an IT report, it would generate different resonances and be apt to misinterpretation.

I think conflating it with mal-ware, inapt in Apple terms anyway! is muddying the wine-dark sea.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:20 pm

Trojan Horse in any context refers to the same thing. Taking a territory over by seemingly harmless ploy analgous to what the trojans did using the Horse. In the computer world, your desktop is invaded by an innocent looking file, just like the horse in Troy. For the person In this article, iTunes is the horse, and the AV world is the desired conquest.

In any sucessful trojan horse scenerio there is a winner and loser. The loser is the one losing control of territory, and the winner is the one setting the trojan horse lose. So even in the computer context when a trojan horse attack is successful, that is a positive for the person setting it free, and only a negative for the owner of the computer attacked.

Accordingly, irregardless of the context of the trojan horse, the report used the term properly.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:54 pm

Guest wrote:
Trojan Horse in any context refers to the same thing. Taking a territory over by seemingly harmless ploy analgous to what the trojans did using the Horse. In the computer world, your desktop is invaded by an innocent looking file, just like the horse in Troy. For the person In this article, iTunes is the horse, and the AV world is the desired conquest.

In any sucessful trojan horse scenerio there is a winner and loser. The loser is the one losing control of territory, and the winner is the one setting the trojan horse lose. So even in the computer context when a trojan horse attack is successful, that is a positive for the person setting it free, and only a negative for the owner of the computer attacked.

Accordingly, irregardless of the context of the trojan horse, the report used the term properly.
I understand what you are saying and it is essentially correct. Regardless the use of a Trojan Horse implies a stealthy invasion against a "foe". I don't really think such an analogy is appropriate as foe in this case is Apple's competitors rather than the home AV user as implied in the article.

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1922 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:22 am

Sorry but I don't buy it. The author meant a reference to the Homeric story, but it was inappropriate in this context. We ARE talking about computer equipment. Trojans ARE a major problem with computer equipment. To say iTunes is Apples Trojan Horse is grossly insensitive to the context. Though I understand what the author was trying to say, his use of the term implies to me a degree of shallowness regarding his understanding of the computer world. To not understand the other meaning of Trojan in this context puts his whole report and its conclusions into question. It was a bad choice of words.

Suppose Apple was pushing out a version of FileMaker to track hospital records. It might be technically correct to say "Filemaker could be a 'Bacterial Infection' through which Apple can enter the health care market sooner than the competition", but it would be equally inappropriate. When choosing words you cannot be oblivious to secondary meanings and contexts. (There's a long list of politicians that have gotten tripped up over the years on that point.)

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pep9454 said:

member since 24 Jan 2006 with 6 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:34 am

You guys are hysterical! Bottom line is Apple is trying to catch up to Microshaft on market share and they're doing a darn good job! Call it what you will, the early bird gets the worm! Go Apple!

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DawnTreader said:

member since 04 Jan 2002 with 15039 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Sat Aug 12, 2006 11:43 pm

Apple is building a platform with iTunes that runs on top of Windows and will serve as a content distribution system regardless of the underlying OS. I'm surprised it's taken this long for researchers and analysts to take notice.

Why do you think Microsoft is so angry about the iPod? It's not the device itself, it's the QuickTime/iTunes combination that's eating a major hole in Microsoft's content distribution via of WMP and Windows plans.

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