print this story
email this storyBreaking News: Lala buys Apple…
Posted by: Spencer // December 07 2009
Just seeing if you’re paying attention. Apple bought Lala a mere day after I decided to review Lala here on SlyMiser. A few thoughts:
Some people might worry that Apple is moving to eliminate a growing competitor and threat. I hope that isn’t the case. While it remains to be seen what happens to the Lala music store, I think this acquisition is all about technology. Lala’s game changing feature is the “stream anywhere” functionality of its service. Once you upload your iTunes library to your Lala account, you can listen to your music through most web browsers. There’s also been word of an iPhone app on the way. This is functionality that has been inexcusably missing from the iPhone’s Remote application. I am hoping that the Remote app and the Lala app are merged to provide one full-service solution.
Lala also helps Apple prepare for the introduction of Spotify here in the U.S. While Lala isn’t a subscription service, it does provide a purchasing alternative to the price fixed iTunes model. The purchase also gives Apple a spot on Google's music search feature, since iTunes wasn't included there.
Here’s hoping that Apple keeps Lala open to users of all browsers and mobile devices. It would be a crime if Lala closed to those users. We’ll keep you posted here if there are any updates to this story.
