links for 2007-04-04
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Apple actually has a super-high quality format called Apple Lossless, where you CAN hear the quality difference. Would have been an excellent opportunity for Apple to switch EMI to this format.
April 3rd, 2007
Archive for April, 2007
Twitter is but IRC
So there’s lots of noise about Twitter, the new service that everyone loved to love at SXSW. I’ve been using it for a few weeks and have been generally impressed. Truth be told, Twitter is really a blogging platform with outstanding delivery preferences. You sign up, then pick friends to exchange posts. Once you do that, you can choose to receive notices from friends in IM or SMS, which is nothing we’ve seen yet from blogging software.
Over the past few days I’ve been exposed to some real head-scratching applications (overkill) and mashups (omg, wtf) that use Twitter. Some of them are interesting for exactly 20 seconds, but that’s the nature of mashups.
Overall, people seem to be using Twitter to gather and engage in group chat. You can see this to a great extent just by following the captain of the Twitter Fan Club, Robert Scoble. Group chat you say? Sounds like IRC. Seriously, read this “What is IRC” guide and tell me you couldn’t describe Twitter the same way. The difference is that Twitter at least gives you awesome user delivery preferences.
I guess my point is, Twitter as a product is inimitable. Once you understand how it works, the software isn’t anything that can’t be easily reproduced. As a company, how do you compete if you have no way to limit competitors from copying your product? About the only way Twitter could protect their service is through their brand. If people don’t care where the notifications come from, Twitter tanks. If users stay loyal, then Twitter could have success just like those who came before it:
April 2nd, 2007
