With the release of the Zune, music sharing has become available on a portable device. However, the implementation is pretty weak — at least in my opinion. The 3×3 rules, while seemingly sensible, do not really address the real benefit of wireless. Apple already has a wireless protocol with Bon Jour (previously Rendezvous). A multicast method of identifying and communicating with remote music-enabled devices, Bon Jour is what enables you to share iTunes libraries and play music remotely on the Airport Express.

With the new iPod, Apple should add 802.11b/g (including an on/off switch, buried deep in the menu system of course) and allow it to participate in ad-hoc (for unit-to-unit sharing) as well as infrastructure networking. Once network enabled, the iPod could use the same protocols that iTunes uses for music sharing allow the iPod to see music shared on desktop computers at home (like an iMac, Mac Mini, or a Windows desktop), other iPods in the area, and some of the network network attached storage systems (NAS) such as the DNS-323 from D-Link.

The iPod would also have the ability to locate and use remote speakers just like iTunes. Not only should this work with the Airport Express, but any iTV device that Apple releases. In fact, I’d like to be able to stream to a Mac Mini attached to my HDTV system via the optical output in that device. Since the Mac Mini is potentially an iTV box on steroids, it should be treated like any other iTunes enabled device on the network. I guess streaming to the PC should also be allowed (while running iTunes, allowing music to be routed through the speakers).

All of these streaming features would be great, but there could also eventually be network-enabled car stereos that could be used as remote speakers using Bon Jour. This would seriously help establish the audio playback and audio control protocols used by iTunes as a defacto standard. The protocol is open and tools exist to build utilities to remotely control iTunes, it would just be a matter of time before you could remotely control your car stereo from your iPod. Not to mention play your music library on your iPod from your car stereo.

These consumer-oriented features really wake-up the iPod to make it a more social experience (no cliche intended to the Zune) and could really bury the competition until they license the patents from Apple to make their players play nicely on the shared network. By using some tricks to keep power consumption low (such as reduced transmission power, low power sleep modes, etc.), battery life could be reasonable and even unchanged if the user simply turns it off.

By adding wireless to the iPod, Apple could enable a number of additional markets for the iTunes music store. Being able to use an iPod without a computer enables a large number of people that cannot afford to have a computer system or the bandwidth to download music to use the iPod for their music. However, trying to implement something like the graphical interface of iTunes on a small iPod screen seems unreasonable given the lackluster history of Internet surfing on the small screen (think Treo, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile).

The market for such a feature is not your regular computer user with a broadband connection. As such, the market cannot be addressed by something that complicated. So I propose the following solution: The iTunes Music Store within a store. Take your average shopper at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, or whatever your local flavor happens to be in your town. A customer browsing the CD rack should be able to power up their iPod, enable wireless, and connect to the Wal-Mart kiosk network.

While connected, they can browse a remote library of music that is available on the CD rack (just like browsing a remote iTunes library with another instance of iTunes). If they decide they want to buy a track or two, they can do some magic on the iPod to indicate their purchase intentions, swipe their pre-paid iTunes music subscription card, and walla, the track is transferred to the iPod. Wal-Mart gets a small cut and the customer walks out happy without having to use a computer to rip and copy their music. They could easily offer the option of regular (128AAC) or lossless (ALC) for different price points (say the current $.99 for the AAC, and $1.29 for the ALC), or $9.99 for the entire disk ($12.99 for lossless).

There is a certain fear that such a change could impact the bottom line at Wal-Mart. However, for most users getting the tracks off their iPod is not likely and they still can’t burn it to CD or play it in their car (without buying more iPod accessories, and we know that is where the mark-up really exists). They have an unlimited virtual inventory of music on release date without having to stock an abundant supply of disks and loss-leader pricing. This could really change the marketplace for music, particularly as more folks more towards the iPod route.

Another great way to offer tracks would be enabled by allowing iPods to share their library just like iTunes on the desktop. If a bunch of us sitting at the coffee shop could listen to each other’s libraries, we could find a song we like (that was previously bought on the iTMS) and buy our own copy of it. This would eliminate the need to browse the entire iTMS on a small device, and eliminate the bandwidth of people listening to 30 second clips on their portable devices. It might even be possible to add the ability to buy a song with the same album name/artist name/song title (or the entire album), but there is some luck involved there since they aren’t able to directly link the actual track to an iTMS purchase.

There are likely a bunch of other marketing scenarios that come into play with a wireless-enabled iPod. I’ve offered the above as market-reasons why it should be added compared to the obvious “consumers want it so make it so” mentality. There are a ton of more consumer-oriented reasons to add wireless, which I’ll cover in another post.