On the music I have to give Apple credit. At first glance I was kind of annoyed at "download again" being their solution. But the more I think about it the more I think it's better than streaming. You get unlimited downloads so you can adjust for device storage space as needed and being able to download the track means you aren't subject to connection problems.
Add that to the fact that all your songs purchased in iTunes are available for free and I think you have a pretty stellar service.
Plus from their perspective it actually saves bandwidth. Since the number of downloads most people make will be limited to the number of devices they have (as opposed to streaming where you have to serve the song up every time it's played)
I think it's as simple as, consumers don't want to deal with the latency. I pick a song, it plays instantly, within half a second. Online players for now seem naive.
Rdio is so fast I don't bother syncing music over to my phone anymore. I think I agree, that normal people aren't going to care about the "latency" here. Price, branding, and integration are huge clubs Apple is wielding here though.
Add that to the fact that all your songs purchased in iTunes are available for free and I think you have a pretty stellar service.
Plus from their perspective it actually saves bandwidth. Since the number of downloads most people make will be limited to the number of devices they have (as opposed to streaming where you have to serve the song up every time it's played)