Quote:
Originally Posted by 4X4
I think you underestimate the importance of staying current in whatever business you're in. Of course it's impossible to crack iTunes now. Back in 2010 when when HMV was peaking, they had a chance.
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When was iTunes launched? 03? Few years of development? ~10 years is a heck of a lead being first to market and having a ton of clout. And on top of that, they had the only decent portable player to play anything off the itunes store for the better part of a decade until smartphones came out.
One of the few to really compete with iTunes IMO was google, who had way more resources than HMV ever could. I recall HMV dabbling in digital downloads, and wiki says they purchased 50% of a company to do that in '09, and had intended to do ebooks as well.
They simply couldn't compete with players already in the field. By 09 apple/google/amazon were well entrenched.
IMO they never had a (good) chance in the digital market, which I would assume is why they branched into video games (failed), the used marked (failed), then vinyl and novelty stuff (failed). It's not like they didn't see the end coming and think they'd stay top dog (ala Blockbuster). I think they tried and just never had a market transition to.
They may have been able to make it work if they downsized and went straight vinyl perhaps in today's market, but the way the music/movie industry has went I don't see them ever having much of a chance.