MacCraic

Hello MacCraicers , know these posts have been thin on the ground but just want to point out the odd price (possible saving) situation that is occurring re mobile connectivity that you might choose for the iPad you may have bought in Ireland on launch.

At the moment and I’m taking the base model iPad for the simplest comparison, the 16GB model with just wi-fi retails for €499 while you will pay an extra €100 premium for the 3G model (this pricing differential is the same for the different models in the line).

If you choose to get the Vodafone Micro-SIM ( assuming of course you’ve paid the €100 premium for the pleasure of the 3G model) you have option of paying:

1 day iPad Plan

€3.99 per day

5GB data allowance

30 day iPad plan

€20 per month

500mb data allowance

Remember, like AT&T there are no termination fees for ending the contract after 30 days or a day depending on which plan you choose above.

Now here’s where this gets strange, at the moment Vodafone Ireland are pushing on their site the Vodafone mobile broadband hotspot (Mi-Fi anyone)

for the following tariffs:

Vodafone mobile broadband

€19.90 per month

10GB data allowance

Vodafone mobile broadband unlimited

You can purchase the hardware on Vodafone Ireland’s online store for €39 with the above plan of choice.

So let’s think about this for a second, you can pick up a 16GB wifi iPad €499 + VF mobile broadband hotspot €39 = €538 and for sake of comparison you choose the VF Mobile Broadband package-10GB monthly allowance (€19.90 per mth X 12mths) €238.80 gives a figure €776.80 for total cost of ownership initially.

However, if you decide to pay the premium & plump for a wi-fi+3G model and VF data plan then it works out as follows – 16gb wi-fi+3G €599 + again for comparison take the 30 day iPad plan-5GB allowance (€20 per mth X 12 mths) €240 which gives a figure of €839 for initial total cost of ownership

This means that you can save €62.20 by plumping for the first option of buying the base wi-fi model with Mi-Fi initially and enjoy double the monthly data allowance (10Gb vs 5GB). In 2nd & subsequent years you save only €1.20 per year but still get double the data allowance.

Know which iPad & plan you would choose ?  :-)

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Well after all the hoopla in the media regarding Apple threatening to shut down its iTunes Store if told to pay artists higher royalties we can rest at ease.

Yesterday the Copyright Royalty Board in the US made it’s decision to keep the royalty rates unchanged. The National Music Publishers’ Association wanted an increase of 60%.   Just to put that into perspective that was an increase from 9c a song to 15c a song.   However Apple makes such low margins selling songs at 99c that any increase could put the music store into a loss making situation unless Apple passed the increase along to its customers.   Apples stand on this is that the marked is not strong enough to take an increase from the 99c price point

Apple had argued that raising music prices above 99-cents per track will be bad for its service.   During the week iTunes VP Eddy Cue warned the company may close shop rather than pay up. Cue stated “If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss – which is no alternative at all,”.

Cue went on, “Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.”

According to reports Apple pays around 70 cents in every dollar to the record labels, who then hand across nine cents to the music publishers who control the copyrights to the music.   When the publishers take their cut the artists get their share or royalty.

Music labels were also against raising royalties.   How strange for Apple and the music labels to agree on something.  In fact according to reports both Apple and the labels have been attempting to decrease royalties paid to songwriters and composers to just 6 per cent.

Apple is a major player in the distribution of music to the listening public and the closure of the iTunes Store (which I don’t believe would ever have happened) would have been a huge blow to the revenue stream of the music industry.   To give you an example:

It has been reported that Piper Jaffray estimates that Apple will sell 2.4 billion songs this year.  That is an 85% share of the digital music market, in addition the Recording Industry Association of America says sales of digital songs and albums rose 46% last year, to $1.2 billion.

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About 3 months after I switched to the Mac platform in 2006 I decided to take .mac for a test-drive. I had heard lots of negative comments about the service but decided that it was probably worth making up my own mind about, after all you do get a free 60 day trial. Well before the 60 days were out I handed over my cash and bought myself a year of .mac, of which I am still a proud member today, although these days it is called mobile me (lame name). To this day I have had no problems or down time with the service (the whole fiasco with the changeover to mobile me aside)….

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