

On Palm, Competition, and iTunes Sync - tptacek
http://hunter.pairsite.com/blogs/20091004/

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btn
_Turns out it's a simple matter of reading the iTunes music library XML
catalog file on a customer's computer, and using that to create a sync
capability for the Pre._

The author seems to mistakenly believe that this XML file is a documented and
supported format for third-party interoperability with iTunes. It's not. The
DTD he links to is that of plist files in general, and does not describe how
iTunes stores its application-specific information in the file. The quote from
the support article is not a message to third-party developers that they
should use this file, simply a statement to users that it _is_ used by other
applications.

The _only_ documented and supported methods of interacting with iTunes are
with visualisation plug-ins, AppleScript, and the COM API.

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surfmike
"One reason that the iPod/iPhone and iTunes have been successful is that they
work so well together."

So wouldn't it follow, therefore, that a competitor would be less successful
if their product didn't work as well with iTunes? In this light, Palm's
strategy makes perfect sense. All a user has to understand is "it works with
iTunes." Forcing people to install a separate sync app makes for a more
confusing experience for a good segment of customers, and regardless is an
extra hassle that Palm has removed through their sync approach.

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leertaylor
While Palm is definitely skating on some thin ice with their approach, I can't
blame them for wanting to use iTunes as their synchronization engine...
Probably the majority of the market they are going after already uses iTunes.
Why force those customers to install yet another application to handle the
synchronization of their music and photos to their phone when they already
have one that they are familiar with? Unfortunately, their customers are
getting stuck in the middle of this cat and mouse game, but it may help them
to get a bunch more early adopters on the platform and allow them to
eventually build an better and more reliable solution.

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tptacek
Palm will be able to do this exactly as long as Apple chooses to let them. The
problem Palm is facing is nowhere near as simple as just spoofing the right
ID's.

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wvenable
Apple cannot go back an update every previous iPod in existence. So at some
point, the Palm pre will respond exactly like some existing iPod model and
Apple won't be able to do anything more.

~~~
tptacek
You're severely underestimating how hard it is to make one device behave
exactly like another device. Start with Comer and Stevens back in 1993:

<http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1267274>

