This was very difficult to accomplish given the various legal systems globally yet Apple was able to define their own MP format, which helped to further differentiate their products relative to mainstream MP3 music files and systems (Knapp, 2009). This technology direction helped to also establish precedence of digital rights ownership as well. Apple had been successful in monetizing the inherent collaborative aspects of the Internet by creating an entire platform capable of growing to support all forms of digital content. This has resulted in the eventual inclusion of video capability in all iPods, the launch of the iPad, and the aggressive launch and development schedules for the iPhone. All of these devices are inherently designed to capture, store, share, and publish digital video. The eventual inclusion of digital video content that is licensed and conforms to the same legal constructs as iTunes music means the traditional television, movies and entertainment industries will face significant disruption (Knapp, 2009). All of this is being driven by the innately collaborative and increasingly stable platform of the Internet.
In comparing the growth trajectory of Apple iTunes and the successful build-out of that ecosystem, there are parallels to equally impressive ecosystems in enterprise software. The development of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in general and the growth of Salesforce.com specifically illustrate the point of how the Internet is forever changing how software is sold (Gray, 2010). One of the major precepts of the...
SaaS capitalizes on this point and creates a high level of utilitarian value for any application (Gray, 2010). There is for example no updates to make to an operating system, no need to get diskettes or CDs and have it department upgrade applications, it is all done online. Salesforce.com has designed a business model that can scale as quickly or as conservatively as any given customer chooses, all predicated on the scalability of the Internet itself. SaaS is then one of the most revolutionary business models that the Internet continues to serve as the catalyst for. The future growth of additional business models will only be constrained by the creativity and insight entrepreneurs have in using the Internet as a catalyst for new venture creation.
References
Bernoff, J., & Li, C.. (2008). Harnessing the Power of the Oh-So-Social Web. MIT Sloan Management Review, 49(3), 36-42.
Gray, J.. (2010). Extensible software-as-a-service: Stability and agility. Journal of Digital Asset Management, 6(6), 323-326.
Jeong, G., & Lee, J.. (2010). Estimating consumer preferences for online music services. Applied Economics, 42(30), 3885.
Knapp, S.. (2009). Ooyala - Accelerating the evolution of online video - an Interview with Sean Knapp of online video publishing. Journal of Digital Asset Management, 5(5), 264-273.
Deana Sobel. (2007). A Bite out of Apple? iTunes, Interoperability, and France's Dadvsi…
