Apple and lock-in strategies

Randall Stross had an article yesterday in the New York Times about the way Apple's digital rights management ("DRM") system locks users in to Apple's products. (Via Slashdot.) In fact, he reports, Apple applies DRM to iTunes files even when the music publishers don't require it to, and some publishers are considering releasing music themselves, without DRM, just to break Apple's position as the middleman and more easily get songs onto iPods. The article also describes how digital rights management systems have evaporated in South Korea.

Meanwhile, David Isenberg and Tom Evslin have criticized Apple's exclusive arrangement with Cingular for the marketing of the iPhone, while Daniel Eran of RoughlyDrafted has tried to explain some of the features of the device that have been targets for criticism or skepticism.