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The Buzz

Yahoo challenges Apple with music subscription service

Internet heavyweight Yahoo Inc. has entered the online music ring with a new subscription service that could challenge the current champion, Apple Computer.

The company released a test version of its new Yahoo Music Unlimited service and offered introductory subscriptions that sharply undercut direct competitors.

Apple's iTunes Music Store, which only sells songs individually, controls about 70 percent of the online music market and has sold more than 400-million tunes worldwide. Rivals such as Napster and Rhapsody offer subscription services, in which consumers rent - not own - songs.

But analysts say Yahoo, an Internet powerhouse that reported a profit of $204.6-million and revenues of $1.17-billion last quarter, could be a formidable contender to Apple, as long as Yahoo doesn't stumble rolling out its still unproven music service.

Yahoo's push into music is just the latest example of technology companies' attempts to increase profits by selling digital entertainment. For example, Apple is known as much now for its iPod players as its computers. Computer giants Hewlett-Packard and Dell now sell flat-panel TVs and PCs that act as media centers.

Yahoo is releasing a test version of Yahoo Music Unlimited, a subscription service that lets users listen to any of the 1-million songs in its library. Subscribers can pay $6.99 each month or pay for an entire year of service up front to lower the rate to $4.99 per month.

In effect, subscribers rent the songs but would not own them permanently. However, Yahoo also will sell downloadable songs that subscribers can own for 79 cents per track.

The Yahoo service also will let subscribers transfer tunes into compatible digital music players that use a Microsoft technology called Janus. The songs can be played on that portable device as long as the subscription is current. The iPod is not compatible with the subscription service.

Microsoft Corp.'s share of the U.S. browser market has slipped below 90 percent as the Firefox browser continues to grow in popularity, according to independent tracking by WebSideStory.

Firefox, an open-source browser collectively developed by the Internet community under the Mozilla Foundation, had a 6.8 percent share as of April 29, an increase from 3 percent since WebSideStory began tracking Firefox separately in October.

Other browsers based on the Mozilla code, including America Online Inc.'s Netscape, had a 2.2 percent share, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer share was 89 percent, a drop from 95 percent in June.

The figures are for all operating systems combined. On computers running Microsoft's Windows, Internet Explorer has a 91 percent share, down from 97 percent in June.

Sony Corp. has introduced the first mass-market laptop with built-in cellular technology for accessing the Internet over a wireless connection.

The new Vaio T350 notebook, with list prices starting at $2,199, is equipped with an internal modem based on the EDGE technology deployed across Cingular Wireless' national network.

While many cell companies in other countries offer EDGE service, the Sony laptops are configured to connect only through an account with Cingular, which is owned by SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. Weighing about 3 pounds without the power adapter, the new Vaios also offer short-range wireless capabilities using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies. A special dashboard lets users toggle between the different wireless options.

Other features include a built-in optical drive that can burn DVDs and CDs.

As part of the relationship, Sony is selling Cingular's data plans to customers who buy the new laptops.

The data plans from Cingular are priced at $80 a month for unlimited national access or $50 for 50 megabits worth of data usage per month. Sony is offering a free month for users who sign a one-year contract and two free months with a two-year contract.

More people are willing to give up their morning coffee than give up using the Internet at work for personal reasons. Websense Inc., a software company whose products monitor employee Net use, released a survey that found 52 percent of staffers apparently find the Web as addictive as java. Only 44 percent said they'd trade Internet access for a cup of coffee. The survey, which included company information technology executives and office workers, also found 93 percent of staffers saying they use the Internet on the job, up from 86 percent last year.

Some 50 years after the TV dinner was introduced to American homes, LG Electronics USA has created the TV Refrigerator. But it is more than something to raid while watching television.

This $3,150 refrigerator is the television.

The refrigerator, available from major retailers like Best Buy and P.C. Richard, has a 13.1-inch liquid-crystal display built into the right door (opposite a water and ice dispenser in the left door). LG designers say the appliance saves counter space.

The television includes an FM radio tuner and 1.5-watt stereo speakers, is cable- and satellite-ready (a coaxial port is built into the right door hinge) and provides inputs for a DVD player or VCR on the side of the door. The refrigerator, which is 68 inches tall and weighs 335 pounds, comes with a wireless remote control.

And fear not for your ice cream: A special cooling system prevents heat generated by the television from affecting the environs of the refrigerator's sealed interior.

Eastman Kodak Co., which shipped more digital cameras in the United States in 2004 than any of its Japanese rivals, retained its edge in the first quarter, a market research company said last week.

Kodak shipped 900,000 point-and-shoot digital cameras to domestic retailers in the January-to-March quarter - 41 percent more than in the first quarter of 2004 - and its market share rose to 20.4 percent from 18.1 percent a year ago, according to IDC of Framingham, Mass.

Canon Inc. strengthened to a second-place ranking with 850,000 shipments, up 72 percent from a year ago. Its slice of the U.S. market surged from 14 percent to 19.3 percent, IDC said.

Sony Corp., the perennial front-runner, dropped to third spot with 800,000 shipments, or 18.1 percent.

Digital cameras, a novelty item in the late 1990s, began outselling film cameras in the United States in 2003. They were the most popular U.S. electronics gift in 2004, the Consumer Electronics Association said.

More than 22.3-million digital cameras were shipped nationwide in 2004, up from 16.4-million in 2003, IDC analyst Christopher Chute said. In 2005, an estimated 27.3-million cameras will be shipped to U.S. retailers, he said.

A question about modem hijacking and a couple of new online tech support sites are among recent additions at the Times' Talkback site (www.sptimes.com/talkback) Readers with questions and comments about tech news of the day also can submit them to Times personal technology editor Dave Gussow there.

[Last modified May 13, 2005, 11:35:04]