With the iPad coming out in a few weeks, I guess many of you guys are doing some huge spring cleaning at your iTunes installation to cut down the garbage and assure that when the new kid will be in town, everything will be settled for a warm and polished welcome. You’d better do so, but I think this is all wrong.
iTunes is obsolete,and so is the concept to use iTunes as a centralized hub for music, videos, photos, settings, backups, calendars – basically, everything. Think about it: all the stuff you have on your iPhone was either created on the iPhone itself or synced via iTunes. You can’t transfer information from your computer to the iPhone without iTunes. And thus I think Apple has been very lazy in these past years, not willing to update iTunes or finding another solution for our needs.
The problem is, when the first iPod came out it seemed pretty clear back then that the best solution to sync music was iTunes. And so they went for it, people loved it and iTunes became music. Your iTunes library is your music. The iPod had an enormous success also because of its simple sync process, there’s no doubt about it. But fast forwarding 10 years, does the same process still work?
I say no. Things are different now, we have iPods, iPhones and iPod Touches, soon we’ll have the iPad, which will hopefully revolutionize mobile computing. But you know, it’s not that we’re still carrying around only music. We carry around a lot of stuff actually: photos, videos, documents, passwords, entire databases full of information. By installing apps on our devices, we carry around our lives.But still, we’re bounded to iTunes as the only software that can connect our iPhone (or whatever device you own) to the files and data we have on our computers. If it was Microsoft, you’d say it’s lame – but being Apple the problem, people seem to ignore it. It’s a huge problem. As the word says, iTunes is for music. It’s not called iData, iApps or iComputer – it’s iTunes and it’s meant for playing music. I can accept videos if you really insist on this. But ultimately, iTunes wasn’t meant for all the other stuff we put on our iPhone. To me, it seems like Apple relaxed and went for a “we have iTunes up and running, let’s deploy everything on that” philosophy, not thinking about the fact that they’ve been deploying stuff on iTunes since the first generation iPod came out.
Now, the iPad is coming out in a few weeks, and nothing new seems to be approaching. It’s very likely that we’ll keep on syncing apps and anything else via iTunes for the next 2 years. But there should be something better than this.
Let’s assume Apple releases a dedicated app for managing the synchronization of content between our computers, the cloud and the mobile devices. It can retrieve music, videos and podcasts from iTunes, the files on MobileMe and calendars from iCal. Apps are gone from iTunes: “Sync.app” is the one and only place for applications, and same applies for the App Store. Hence iTunes reverts to its original purpose, being your music organizer, powered by an online store. Moving the App Store to a dedicated app other than iTunes, could also help Apple is streamlining the whole store experience and perhaps redesign the whole thing which, truth be told, is cluttered. Sync app would also bring a better management for your installed applications, such as an advanced backups viewer or settings adjustments from your desktop. I can’t even imagine all the pros of having a standalone software for syncing the iPhone.
Having iTunes as the only solution for sync is surely great for non-skilled users, but are sure the opposite won’t work better? And if you believe iTunes is the way to go, then why not adding support for apps to iPhoto? Or put some links to the Store in Aperture?
By removing the iPad and the App Store from iTunes, Apple could have the chance to refine an experience which, sadly, is still desktop dependent. And if so, why not making it better and unique?
#1
That's what aleks said 5 months ago:
so, if we follow your idea, we will need to have at least 2 apps to do sync: music/videos/movies with itunes, everything else with icrazyapp_for_iphone ?
it’s so microsoft style
[Reply]
Federico Viticci Reply:
March 10th, 2010
@aleks, I didn’t say that.
"It can retrieve music, videos and podcasts from iTunes, the files on MobileMe and calendars from iCal. Apps are gone from iTunes: “Sync.app” is the one and only place for applications, and same applies for the App Store."
It could just *use* iTunes for that kind of content.
[Reply]
sebax Reply:
March 10th, 2010
@aleks, you could just have acces to the itunes library via the "sync.app", as itunes does with iPhoto… and OSX with the whole Media. Shouldn’t be tha hard, i really like that idea, a more powerfull sync experience. iTunes is pretty heavy right now, getting iPhone out of it hopefully will make it lighter to just listen music on the background.
side note, out of context… is there a bug on the reply box, or it’s just me? http://drp.ly/zz82G http://drp.ly/zz82G
[Reply]
#2
That's what Anthony Glyadchenko said 5 months ago:
I agree. Or at least they could rename iTunes and just design it with that in mind. Maybe break up iTunes into components. Or just make a separate app which hooks into iTunes, but on the other hand can function separately. Or how about a version of iTunes that’s iPad specific and one that’s not?
[Reply]
Federico Viticci Reply:
March 10th, 2010
@Anthony Glyadchenko,
"Or just make a separate app which hooks into iTunes, but on the other hand can function separately."
Exactly.
[Reply]
#3
That's what Richard Hallas said 5 months ago:
I completely agree with this and have thought much the same thing for a long time. A new solution has been getting increasingly important for a long time, and I think that the iPad will bring the situation to a head. In fact, I noticed that Steve Jobs made a comment about synching via iTunes at the iPad launch presentation, because it seemed like a veiled acknowledgement that the situation isn’t ideal. I strongly suspect, in fact, that Apple is well aware of the problem, but just hasn’t had time to address it properly yet. It’s not a trivial problem, and the solution needs to be elegant. Maybe, when iPhone OS 4 comes along, there will be a better answer to go with it in terms of this synching situation. Here’s hoping, anyway.
[Reply]
#4
That's what carlbert said 5 months ago:
They should redesign iTunes as a general purpose Hub to sync all your mobile devices with your computer and the cloud (Mobile Me) It could be like a MobileMe Client but without requiring an account…
[Reply]
#5
That's what Della said 5 months ago:
So we’ll have: iTunes for music, iSomething for apps, iPhoto for -well- photos, iYetAnotherSoftware for videos, iNotes for notes (or can we still rely on Mail.app?) and finally iSyncEverything (and this makes 6 apps) wich is just a tiny app with the pourpose of decide what to sync from the other applications’ libraries to the iPod/iPhone/iPad. If the point is the simmetry, it could be a nice idea, but i’m sure functionality comes first over at Apple.
[Reply]
Federico Viticci Reply:
March 10th, 2010
@Della, The fact that you’ve come to my same point says everything.
[Reply]
Della Reply:
March 10th, 2010
@Federico Viticci, what i’m saying that this would not be an ergonomic solution: why do i have to install, use, manage -let’s say- three new apps for something i can easily do with just iTunes? i agree with the fact that itunes is slow as hell and heavy as well, but is still a great multimedia hub and i don’t think that the various functionalities (music library/store, app store, device syncing) interfer with each other.
also from the point of view of a windows user, the number of apps needed would be just a problem.
apple has always tried to unify as much functions as possible into one software (see itunes itself, mail, preferences both on macs and iphones etc) i wouldn’t bet on a software multiplication.
[Reply]
#6
That's what Arthur B said 5 months ago:
You have a good point, but there are usability issues which you may not have considered. If iTunes becomes solely a music library manager, then apps should be removed from the iTunes store. Would apple come up with another piece of software to purchase apps from? Also, if apple did come up with a separate piece of software for syncing, this would cause a disruption for many consumers who are not that computer savvy. They are accustomed to iTunes and having to learn another piece of software is not usually positive experience for most people. I think an overhaul of iTunes will be much more probable than the development of a new syncing app. Apple needs to keep the process the same, but redevelop iTunes to be more media oriented, including apps, music, books, etc… rather than just music. I’m sure they are considering all options at this point. Whatever course they decide to take, the transition will be very gradual not to cause any agony to the user and the overall experience.
[Reply]
Federico Viticci Reply:
March 10th, 2010
@Arthur B, You have a good point too. As for the App Store problem, I wrote that the entire *App* Store should be a standalone space, not a sub-category of the iTunes Store, which is for music and yeah, movies. But at this point, we all agree that the term "Tunes" isn’t proper at all.
[Reply]
JF Reply:
March 11th, 2010
@Federico Viticci, iTunes is a franchise… don’t forget. It happens to be a computer software too… Breaking iTunes which is a sum of compromises, must be a well thought out process to be successful and bring a real better solution… which is not trivial imho.
[Reply]
#7
That's what Ben said 5 months ago:
The approach you’re presenting is pretty reasonable and logical. However, you need to keep in mind that Apple is not only for the "Geeky"/"Nerdie" types anymore, especially not in it’s media department (iPod/iPhone and soon iPad), which is for everyone.
Now, that those "everyone" and think about them…there are *some* people who have only the smallest clue about computers. Making 2 different apps might confuse them.
On another note, it’s a fact that Apple doesn’t know how to make good Windows applications/programs (I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is). Look at iTunes for example, on the Mac it’s seamless and great but on Windows it’s just crawling and a very much memory hungry.
Thus, we can pretty much say that Apple doesn’t like making Windows applications nor wants to do more that it absolutely needs to have a larger customer base for it’s hardware. So, if Apple will make this "iSync.app", it will need to port it to Windows, something that Apple doesn’t want to do really.
Also, and regarding my last paragraph, we need to keep in mind that Apple is a business that it’s main purpose is simple – "Make as much money as it can", developing another application, which is not likely to increase it’s customer base is a "wast of money" (business-wise of course).
So, all in all, I agree with your claim to "split iTunes" to two different applications, but I can also understand Apple who are not doing that at the moment.
I’m hopeful that in 2 years or so, when some more products that will depend on iTunes will be released Apple will finally "split" iTunes, but until then, I’m going to use iTunes, as even though it might crowd a lot of stuff into it, it’s still a great application (while running on a Mac, ain’t talking about using it on Windows, that’s a whole different story).
[Reply]
#8
That's what delphinus87 said 5 months ago:
I’m personally hoping for an "iTunes X" at WWDC. I can haz 64-bit Cocoa?
[Reply]
JF Reply:
March 11th, 2010
@delphinus87, who cares how iTunes is build ? Too geeky !
[Reply]
#9
That's what Marko said 5 months ago:
This remembers me of my good old Palm days. The Hotsync app managed all the syncing and could be extended via plugins.
[Reply]
Federico Viticci Reply:
March 11th, 2010
@Marko, I thought about Palm today. Especially when they came out with iTunes sync for the Pre.
[Reply]
#10
That's what fellowweb said 5 months ago:
So true! Thank you, Federico!
Maybe I might add that Apple should – after how many years? – start thinking about a plugin-based sync platform for 3rd party iPhone/iPod touch/iPad apps. They don’t allow for USB sync. They’re not able to provide bluetooth sync. I haven’t seen anything less Mac-like and less user friendly than Wifi-sync.
In addition, I’d love to have Bluetooth sync as I had with every other smartphone 5 years ago – not for the "iTunes stuff" (i.e. multimedia files requiring high band-with) but for everything else. Because it usually only the data requiring only low band-width such as contacts or appointments which gets updated frequently.
[Reply]
#11
That's what JF said 5 months ago:
Well, sounds wonderful on paper but in reality, I think you all miss a major point: CONTENT. I mean, syncing is one thing, consuming and managing content is quite another. By creating too many small software utilities just for the sake of being technically ‘clean’, you are putting too much emphasis on the process of syncing content to other devices… this is not the point ! Yes, syncing is sometime weird, case in point: iTunes is responsible to sync photos out of iPhoto to the Apple TV or other devices… this is weird… but this is a compromise… mother or father with mostly 100-200 or many 500 songs, 20 apps and a few podcasts don’t bother about the whole apparent mess that you think iTunes as become.
The iPad is not for geek, but we are so we are quick to point out what is missing or could have been for version 1.0 product… But Apple is targeting the others: mom and dad that consume content from the internet (itunes store included)… oh, and yes, you could sync the iPad to a computer with iTunes to bring your music library if you happen to have one…
We leave in a world of compromises..
[Reply]
#13
That's what Matt Stanford said 5 months ago:
Federico, you’re right: iTunes is way off-topic now, but it IS convenient having it all in the one place, even if syncing feels a bit back-endish, like you’re doing a deal in the room out the back.
The issue from Apple’s point of view is the awesome delivery model that the iTunes (and later the app-) Store is.
That needn’t change much with the solution you suggest, but the advantage of having music, videos, films, apps and podcasts/iTunesU all in the one spot is this scenario: I came here looking for Duelling Banjo’s Greatest Hits album, but a promo caught my eye, and now I’ve just bought the $99 TomTom app. As well.
There’s no way Apple is going to separate out delivery of all those different kinds of media without a better way of inter-linking it: they’ve managed it with iLife stuff (iDVD is the perfect example), so it’s certainly possible, but you simply can’t ignore that the current situation is so far in their favour that they’re going to be unwilling to change it without Very, Very good reason.
I’ll be interested to see how docs made and saved with Pages, Keynote and Numbers on the iPad get synced. Through iTunes? Seriously?
That may be the element that pushes it into crazytown.
[Reply]
#14
That's what Hakala said 5 months ago:
I don’t quite think there ought to be a separate application to sync/buy apps, BUT, I do think iTunes could use a serious overhaul. It’s overdue. iTunes 9 was somewhat of a gateway in my eyes. I think apple is in fact aware of the issue at front, but will roll it all out in the next year or two after iPhone OS 4.0 releases. They just need to redesign the whole thing. iTunes store needs to be REsubdivided into music video podcast books and apps. Done. Redo tw sync method. Clear the clutter from the backend. ENABLE CACHEING OF ICONS/IMAGES WITH THE LIBRARY ALSO!
[Reply]
#15
That's what Paul Sorensen said 4 months ago:
You guys really think that Apple should bifurcate it’s device synching mechanism because 1) it’s called "iTunes" and 2) iTunes "is becoming cluttered".
Makes zero sense.
Having said that I suspect that they’ll be doing more over-air synching via MobileMe in the near future.
[Reply]
#16
That's what akri said 3 months ago:
Federico..I enjoy reading ur articles..however..I fail to see how itunes is obsolete?? I think it’s good to have all in one place…iphone users know to sync w/itunes…so what? why do u want to have separate files or change the name? i think it’s easier this way..and we all still buy music from itunes and movies and such..it’s not going away anytime soon.
[Reply]
#17
That's what bill said 2 months ago:
Well how about syncing for those of us who use machines in a corp environment and where we are specifically not allowed to install itunes?
[Reply]