Apple is good for rolling out services and features (like iTunes Genius) which at first glance appear to be inane, but almost always are serving as test balloons for some greater future use. The most extreme example of this is AppleTV. Because Apple is sitting on so much money, they can afford to float this “hobby” while waiting on other aspects home entertainment industry to shake out. When the direction becomes clear, they will already have a product in place to which they can add new features or alter in a way that allows it to instantly become a hot product.

Another example is the voice communication feature on the iPod Shuffle. I wouldn’t doubt if the whole thing about making the Shuffle smaller than a stick of gum is some kind of big running joke within Apple, like the SNL sketch. No, the whole objective is to work the kinks out of the voice technology so that they can use it for more important things – namely, accessibility features for Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch, and other new products on the horizon. While tech whiners are complaining about the new Shuffle not being up to the task of serving as the hub of their digital lifestyles (!?!?!), Apple is making bigger plans.

Apple is enabling lots of people to make money. The telcos wanted to keep it all for themselves.

But there will be pushback to giving transactions (and a cut) to Apple. The Kindle app and Amazon will be an early test case. Apple will have to manage this — and they really need to beef up developer support and communication.