Relatively recently, Apple announced that with the update of the operating system, macOS will abandon the iTunes program. It will be replaced by three separate applications: Podcasts, TV and Music.
Commenting on their decision, the managers of the corporation from the American Cupertino said that iTunes is a relic of another, already past tense. In addition, the program has received almost no updates for a long time.
The decision was made because Apple seeks to position itself as a provider of entertainment services, and not only a manufacturer of equipment. The plans concern iTunes for Mac, this is in line with the strategy of decentralizing media content to iPad and iPhone. In the absence of iTunes, users will be able to manage their devices through the music application.
Developers will receive new tools for creating versions of iOS applications for laptops and desktops. The company strives to unify its applications by making them available on all platforms.
The iTunes service was launched in January 2001 under the leadership of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs At that time it was a revolutionary platform for storing and downloading music, where the user could transfer tracks from CDs, converting them to digital format, and where it was possible to legally buy music.
However, with the launch of Spotify in 2008, users gradually began to switch to consuming music content using music streaming services, instead of downloading songs in the iTunes. And this trend has continued to this day.
The elimination of a brand like iTunes also symbolizes a lot. By dividing its music, television and podcast offerings into three separate platforms, Apple will deliberately attract attention as a multidisciplinary entertainment provider, rather than as a hardware company that sells entertainment through one of its many applications. This is crucial for Apple’s future, as the company struggles with weak phone sales through the aggressive growth of its services division.
The iTunes software will always be praised for the revolution it designed in the early 2000s. Before iTunes appeared on the market, the music industry was in decline, trying to fight piracy. Jobs introduced the first sustainable and convenient way to listen to music in the digital age. Other firms, such as Sony and Microsoft, played with the idea of digital record stores – they were technology companies that knew how to create disc players and equipment. But they were not companies that could demonstrate the sophistication that Apple demonstrated with respect to software.
