I was excited to see the Carticipate application on the iTunes Application Store.  Carticipate is a social networking tool to find carpool buddies.  I was very impressed by this real-world application of social networking.  There’s also a Carticpate application coming to Facebook.  The value of Carticipate obviosly increases as mor eusers come on board.  One complaint about carpooling is that it does not offer carpoolers flexibility for things like errands, after work happy hours and trips to the gym before and after work.  With a large enough social network a Carticipate user would be more likely to have a friend going from most points A to most points B at various times of day.  One might even be able to coordinate “transfers” among multiple carpooling buddies so that Bob rides with Carol from Washington to Tysons Corner and then catches a ride with Ted and Alice from Tysons Corner to Ashburn.

That, and I think the concept is just really neat.

Today I read in the Wall Street Journal that Universal Music Group is looking to avoid long-term contracts with Apple for the sale of Universal artists’ music on iTunes. Never mind that iTunes is now the 3rd largest music retailer in the United States?

Highlighting continuing tension between the music industry and Apple Inc., Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group is considering notifying the Cupertino, Calif., company that it isn’t renewing a long-term contract to sell digital-music downloads through the increasingly powerful iTunes Store, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Aside from continuing complaints that digital music encourages or enables piracy, Universal have been one of the most vocal record labels criticizing Apple’s $0.99/song pricing scheme.

Practically since the launch of the iTunes store in 2003, Apple and the four major record labels have been at loggerheads over two critical issues: pricing and the lack of so-called interoperability between downloads sold by iTunes competitors and Apple’s popular iPod. Apple from the start insisted on selling all downloads for 99 cents each. Record labels wanted to sell some music for more, other music for less.

I continue to be amazed by the ability of music industry executives to continue to fight battles that they’ve already lost, and now Universal seems perfectly willing to hurt their own sales and stockholders in a continued battle with Apple over flat-rate pricing.

Technorati Tags: iTunes, Competitive Inteligence

Everybody’s favorite CEO referred to podcasting as the Wayne’s World of radio. Despite being a bit dated, this former resident of Aurora, Illinois had to chuckle at the reference.

In a likely related note, Adam Curry mentioned a meeting he had with Mr. Jobs on this morning’s Daily Source Code. I would suspect the two announcements are related.

Some interesting comments were also made on Apple’s ability to work with the mobile carriers to get iTunes incorporated into phones. It sounds like Apple are having a tough go with this.

The gist of the Trib article is that the delay resulted when one of the wireless carriers objected to the inclusion of iTunes functionality on a wireless phone that would not include them in the revenue mix for sales. I have to admit that I’m somewhat taken aback by this, because I could only suspect most users would simply be transferring songs already purchased via their computers to the phone. If users are downloading the songs via wireless data networks, carriers should be satisfied and ga-ga with revenue from the downloading of those bits (data tariffs are pretty lucrative). In other words, the carrier is included in the mix on the basis of the cost of the download itself.

At Fierce Wireless there is speculation that wireless companies are focused on launching their own music services, and this is the basis of their reluctance to let Motorola fly with this phone. I can give this a degree of validity, because weve been seeing more and more wireless carriers looking to control and brand the entire wireless experience as they see fit.

The Trib rightly observes that this scenario (if indeed it is the result of carrier objections) speaks volumes about the balance of power between carriers and equipment manufacturers. Shadows of PalmOne’s decision to disable Bluetooth on the Treo 650 at the behest of Sprint, anyone? This balance of power, combined with the rise of lowest-cost manufacturers like LG spells some serious trouble for the premium brands in the mobile industry. As carriers take issue with new features and functionality, it could easily follow that the innovation that the likes of Moto, Nokia and Sony Ericsson have shown could come to matter less and less.

The competitive intelligence guy in me is hopping that the executives at these companies took the time to war game these potential scenarios and are ready with some means to respond. One idea that jumps to my mind is to push the notion of the unlocked phone harder here in the US just like its been in Europe. With number portability a reality now, phone manufacturers can really make a push on the notion of being able to take your phone with you wherever you go. An obvious obstacle that comes to mind is the diverse wireless standards in the US, such that a customer would not be able to take their phone from, say T-Mobile (who use GSM) to Verizon Wireless (who use CDMA). New chipsets, however, might alleviate this limitation.

Regardless, Motorolas lot reflects broader changes for wireless phone manufacturers. I hope they are prepared to respond, because I want my iTunes phone.