Under the link-bait title War looms as Sony hints that it will abandon iTunes, The Age interviews chief executive officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, Michael Ephraim, who actually hints (a bit) that Sony might (rather than will) abandon iTunes.

On Sony’s Music Unlimited, he says:

If we do [get mass take up] then does Sony Music need to provide content to iTunes?

Bwuh? Because, obviously, the most sensible thing to do is make it so you can only get Sony music from a Sony shop on Sony devices. I foresee no problems here, and it won’t at all have Sony artists spitting fury about the company having removed their music from the biggest online music merchant.

Currently we do. We have to provide it to iTunes as that’s the format right now.

The format? What? What format? Are you talking about AAC? Or do you mean “it’s a system Sony has to support”, in the same way that Sony supports, say, Amazon and Walmart?

Publishers are being held to ransom by Apple and they are looking for other delivery systems, and we are waiting to see what the next three to five years will hold.

Yes, those poor publishers. Why won’t anyone THINK OF THE PUBLISHERS? Man, Apple really are bastards, revolutionising the online music space, actually encouraging people to buy digital music (rather than nick it), and making a success of this. Poor Sony. I WILL CRY TEARS FOR YOU TONIGHT.

The rumours were true: Windows Phone is to be Nokia’s “primary smartphone strategy” (TechRadar).

A full alliance would make perfect sense. Since cleverly dismissing the iPhone as a “niche product”, Nokia’s never come close to competing with it, because while it gets hardware, it doesn’t have a clue about the importance of software (despite actually making or buying decent software). Microsoft, on the other hand, spent years arsing about with its mobile strategy, before surprising everyone with the stupidly named but otherwise rather good Windows Phone 7 (for Windows Phone 7 phones—see what I mean about the name?).

An alliance gives Microsoft a boost, which it desperately needs at present, since it’s way behind in the race. It also gives Nokia a chance to avoid haemorrhaging further market share.

BUT! In a not-at-all shocking twist, neither company has the balls to do this properly. Micronok could become a direct challenger to Apple, with pinpoint focus: few unit types, utterly robust integration of software and hardware, fantastic user experience. Instead, it seems to be, again, hedging its bets, with a semi-open model that sits between Apple’s iOS and Google’s ‘fire it at every company possible’ Android. This is a strategic partnership, but you’ll still see Nokia mucking about with other platforms and Microsoft cosying up to other hardware partners.

Software Duncan Wilcox also notes on Twitter that the deal is somewhat one-sided:

No exclusivity on Windows Phone 7 means Microsoft is using Nokia as a trampoline for WP7 marketshare, sucking life out

I’ve no doubt this partnership will be successful, and Windows Phone 7 deserves to do well (despite its stupid name), but it’s a pity another platform isn’t taking Apple head-on.

John Gruber on the HP TouchPad ‘summer’ release:

Summer feels like a long time away. If my theory is right, they’re not only going to be months behind the iPad 2, but if they slip until late summer, they might bump up against the release of the iPad 3.

I’m unsure what Gruber means here, but TechRadar’s assuming he’s talking about the iPad 3 showing up in September. There’s some logic in this from a technology standpoint, in that Retina displays might be ready for the device by that point, but I don’t think Apple’s going to start offering iPad upgrades every six months. Doing so would wreck a chunk of sales, massively upping hold-outs. Also, given that international releases of Apple iOS kit are often delayed for three or more months, it’d be crazy to have the US gearing up for iPad X when some countries only just got iPad X-1.

I suspect Apple will stick to its annual refresh for this and its other major hardware products. The reliability and regularity is beneficial from a sales, marketing and manufacturing standpoint. To that end, I’m thinking the iPad 2 will show up in the USA a year after the iPad (i.e. April) and then elsewhere over the summer, and the iPad 3 to show up in April 2012. (Alternatively, perhaps the upcoming iPad might not be considered a ‘major’ revision and won’t be branded iPad 2, but even if the only big change is a FaceTime camera, that’ll cause enough of a splash in the press.)

UPDATE: Gruber follows up by saying the transition would make sense, with an iPad announcement replacing the iTunes/iPod one, which he says is “old news”.

OK, so the title of this one’s not quite true, but HP’s new tablet looks like an iPad, and John Gruber makes a brilliant point:

TouchPad — a name that, not coincidentally, is drawn from those of two best-selling iOS devices

Not very subtle, HP. Also, the announcement seemed lacking in important details, such as price, availability and battery life. Still, I’m sure those will all ensure it’s an iPad killer, right, tech press?

Jeremy Keith on the BBC’s plans to—for no reason whatsoever—delete a whole bunch of websites:

Just to be clear, these sites aren’t going to be archived. They are going to be deleted from the web. Server space is the new magnetic tape.

This callous attitude appears to be based entirely on the fact that these sites occupy URLs in top-level directories—repeatedly referred to incorrectly as top level domains on the BBC internet blog—a space that the decision-makers at the BBC are obsessed with.

The BBC, of course, famously spent plenty of effort in the 1960s and 1970s trashing or deleting tapes, which of course hasn’t at all returned to haunt the corporation. Tapes cost money, and so the argument back then was stronger, but the BBC just nuking a load of websites that are just sitting there being informative, like the bastard knowledge-givers and memories-storage containers that they are, is bonkers. (Bye, 47000 unique World War Two memories that the public contributed—the BBC wants to delete you to appease the Tories and senior-level BBC management somehow!)

Keith adds:

I’m very saddened to see the BBC join the ranks of online services that don’t give a damn for posterity.

I agree wholeheartedly.